The ethical questions surrounding the recruitment of patients for clinical trials become more complicated when the recruiting physicians receive financial benefits for each patient enrolled.
Two physicians assert that pharmaceutical companies' sponsorship of clinical conferences for residents and physicians represent a conflict of interest.
Physicians should encourage pharmaceutical companies to make socially responsible funding decisions and take an active role in setting biomedical research priorities by advocating for fair and effective allocations of public and private biomedical R & D investments.
The financial generosity of the pharmaceutical industry to provide funding for medical education tempts a compromise of professional standards and ethics.
A Canadian physician reports there is systematic bias to the outcome of published research funded by the pharmaceutical industry and believes more steps need to be taken to improve the integrity of clinical research reports in the United States and Canada.
In April 2002, many pharmaceutical companies adopted PhRMA code, an attempt to self-regulate the pharmaceutical industry's marketing to physicians and other health care professionals.