N-of-1 trials are empirical formal tests using a within-patient randomised, double-blind, cross-over comparison of drug and placebo (or another drug), which we adapted to study individual patients' responses as a clinical tool to guide clinical management. We administered semi-structured interviews to gauge stakeholder perspectives on the possibility of using routine n-of-1 trials for this purp...

This paper seeks to examine empirically the extent to which actors in subsidiaries of multinational companies (MNCs) are able to exercise some choice in the face of global pressures from the MNC headquarters (HQ). We argue that managerial practices in MNCs are not the result of a simple imposition of a global or a MNC organisational rationality but are subject to an interactive process, where d...

Much attention has been focused in recent years on the ethical acceptability of physicians receiving gifts from drug companies. Professional guidelines recognize industry gifts as a conflict of interest and establish thresholds prohibiting the exchange of large gifts while expressly allowing for the exchange of small gifts such as pens, note pads, and coffee. Considerable evidence from the soci...

Although the influence of research onmedical practice has become a key concern, the influence of pharmaceutical advertising in medical journals has received little attention. There is evidence that advertising influences doctors’ behaviour more than they might think. Important pockets of research exist in this area but tend to focus on the scientific validity of the text and rarely give much at...

The therapy is called EWOT (exercise with oxygen therapy) or multi-step therapy. You’ve read about it in the past, but that’s just the beginning of what will be one of the biggest breakthroughs ever in antiaging medicine in decades, and yet it’s still virtually ignored by the medical establishment. Why? Probably because it doesn’t cost much, so the doctors and drug companies aren’t going to get...

BACKGROUND Although there is a consensus that clozapine is more effective than conventional antipsychotic drugs for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, there is great heterogeneity among results of relevant trials. AIMS To re-evaluate the evidence comparing clozapine with conventional antipsychotics and to investigate sources of heterogeneity. METHOD Individual studies were inspected with as...

In the early 1970s, Congress directed the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare to create a commission for the purpose of ascertaining the important principles that should guide biomedical research that uses human research subjects. The report of this commission was to be published by the Secretary in the Federal Register and, unless the Secretary made any other proposals, it was to become...

Pharmaceutical production and distribution constitute big business. For the companies the rewards can be substantial. Rates of return on drug company investments tend to be higher than many other manufacturing enterprises. But reward is only one side of the story. There is also the issue of social risk, the focus of this article. Social risk for pharmaceutical production is especially pronounce...

ISSN: 1526-5161 (Print) 1536-0075 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uajb20 Why Academic Medical Centers Should Ban Drug Company Gifts to Individuals Carson Strong To cite this article: Carson Strong (2010) Why Academic Medical Centers Should Ban Drug Company Gifts to Individuals, The American Journal of Bioethics, 10:1, 13-15 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10...

If a drug company wanted to create the ideal cholesterol-lowering medication, here's what it would make: a safe, inexpensive pill that lowered levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides, raised HDL (good) cholesterol, and changed the sizes of cholesterol particles to make them less harmful or more beneficial. Of the current cholesterol-lowering drugs on the market, niacin comes closest t...