[SaneVax: Following an announcement that The British Medical Journal will no longer publish articles for which there is no patient level data available, researchers are calling on European governments to boycott Roche products until they provide requested clinical trial data. This would appear to be a most reasonable demand, considering government health authorities should have had access to this data prior to making an approval decision.]
Boycott Roche Over Unreleased Tamiflu Data?
By Ed Silverman, Pharmalot
In the latest effort to force Roche to release clinical trial data on its Tamiflu flu medication, a researcher from the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen is urging European governments to boycott Roche products and file lawsuits against the drugmaker until complete data is released.
The suggestion comes one week after the British Medical Journal, which published the missive from Peter Gotzsche, announced a new policy in which it will no longer publish studies unless “the relevant anonymised patient level data available (is made available) on reasonable request.” The policy goes into effect in January 2013 (back story).
In explaining its decision, the influential journal pointed to a widely publicized episode last year in which researchers at the Cochrane Collaboration say they were stymied by Roche in their efforts to fully assess up-to-date efficacy information for the Tamiflu influenza treatment, an episode cited by BMJ (back story).
At issue has been concern over the extent to which Tamiflu is effective (read here) and a follow-up effort by the Cochrane Collaboration, which determined Tamiflu may not prevent complications from influenza in healthy adults, but reversed a previous finding the pill defended against and other deadly conditions linked to the disease.
Read the entire article here.
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