More Conflicts of Interest: Review Articles Sponsored by the Pharmaceutical Industry

To the Editor.  —The recent article by Dr Witt and Mr Gostin¹ was interesting and informative. One subject missing from the article was payment of honoraria by the pharmaceutical industry to established investigators for publishing review articles. Some pharmaceutical companies may offer assistance in searching literature and writing a draft of the article either directly or through a contracted service. Even if the investigator writes the entire article, it is expected that the pharmaceutical company would review it and provide comments or suggestions for revision prior to its submission to a journal.This may give the pharmaceutical company an opportunity to include data on file and, more importantly, present its product most effectively in relation to competitive products since other companies would not have the same opportunity. Interestingly, the receipt of honoraria for review articles is rarely disclosed. Such disclosures to their readers should be required by all journals.