Incomplete Financial Disclosure for Study of Funding and Outcomes in Major Cardiovascular TrialsIncomplete Financial Disclosure for Study of Funding and Outcomes in Major Cardiovascular Trials

To the Editor: I would like to apologize to the readers of JAMA for an incomplete financial disclosure in my article on reported outcomes in major cardiovascular clinical trials funded by for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.¹ My coauthor and I received no financial or material support of any kind from any entity for this study. In the article, we described the funding source and outcome for those cardiovascular trials surveyed in which I served as either the primary author or coauthor.^{2 - 5}

However, JAMA policy requires disclosure of any potential conflicts of interest even when there is no funding for the study at hand. This policy does not distinguish whether or not the conclusions are unfavorable to the entities involved. In this regard, over the past 5 years I have received research funding from multiple not-for-profit entities including the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Leducq Foundation, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, the American Heart Association, and the James and Polly Annenberg La Vea Charitable Trusts. I have also received investigator-initiated research support during this 5-year period from multiple for-profit entities including AstraZeneca, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dade-Behring, Novartis, Pharmacia, Roche, Sanofi/Aventis, and Variagenics. I am also listed as a coinventor on patents held by the Brigham and Women's Hospital that relate to the use of inflammatory biomarkers in cardiovascular disease and have served as a consultant to several of the above-listed entities. None of these entities played any role whatsoever in the design, interpretation, or drafting of the manuscript.¹ I regret making this omission.