Science for Sale
(Page 3 of 5)
November/December 1999
Tinker Ready Boston Phoenix (www.bostonphoenix.com)
'Readers should have the opportunity to form their own opinions on whether conflict of interest exists,' he adds. But they rarely do. In 1997 Krimsky found that in 272 of 800 scientific papers, the authors owned stock, served as consultants, or had some other financial stake in the findings. Only one-half of 1 percent of the 62,000 articles he checked included disclosure statements.
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The Athena Alzheimer's test is a classic case of how the pharmaceutical industry can dress up marketing and call it academic research. Alzheimer's affects about 4 million people in the United States; they and their families are desperate for a cure. Testing at least offers hope to patients suffering from memory loss, whose symptoms could be due to drug interactions or minor strokes. But so far there is no blood test or brain scan to diagnose Alzheimer's; doctors rely instead on a combination of MRIs, memory tests, and gut instinct.
In 1993, Duke University scientists discovered an Alzheimer's-related gene. Two years later, Athena bought the right to use the discovery to develop ADmark, a promising but imperfect diagnostic test that hit the market in 1996. In 1997, Quebec-based Nymox Corporation began marketing a different test based on Harvard pathologist Susan de la Monte's discovery of a protein found in high levels in the blood of Alzheimer's patients.
Since both tests are new and imprecise (both claim 80 to 90 percent accuracy), insurance companies won't pay for them. Athena thus found itself with a hard sale, new competition, and skepticism among doctors. So--following the 'nine-out-of-ten-doctors-recommend' approach--it elicited expert endorsements by granting the nonprofit Alzheimer's Association $100,000 to explore the usefulness of Alzheimer's tests. The nonprofit group then asked the highly respected NIH to host a panel and endorse the final report. Athena's role was thus veiled behind two layers of nonprofit credibility. The Alzheimer's Association rounded up experts to conduct the research; among them were Harvard's Dennis Selkoe and Alan Roses, the Duke scientist who discovered the gene.
The final report, published in the April 1998 issue of The Neurobiology of Aging, endorsed the Athena test. The article noted Athena Neurosciences' 'sponsorship,' but nowhere did it mention that Selkoe co-founded Athena, or that Roses held the patent.
The endorsement was subtle. The scientists evaluated not products but the relevance of 'biomarkers'--physical signs that the tests look for. But it did call the technology behind the Athena test the only one that 'can add confidence' to conventional diagnostic techniques. They called de la Monte's protein test 'promising' but said it would 'require further study.'
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