🎭Conflicts of Interest

When billions of dollars in losses or gains are riding on the results of a study, this will almost inevitably influence the results.

Long-term randomized trials are extremely expensive to set up and run. When billions of dollars in losses or gains are riding on the results of a study, this will almost inevitably influence the results. For example, an analysis of beverage studies, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, found that those funded by Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, the American Beverage Association, and the sugar industry were five times more likely to find no link between sugary drinks and weight gain than studies whose authors reported no financial conflicts.

The economic survival of the pharmaceutical company is dependent on the positive outcome of the trial. While there's not a lot of evidence to support that there's any illegal manipulation of results, it leads to two problems: