ODENSE, Denmark, June 20 (UPI) -- A Danish study suggests physicians taking part in pharmaceutical-sponsored clinical trials are more likely to prescribe the sponsor's drugs.
The researchers say the effect may be strengthened by physicians' experience with the products and by close physician-company cooperation, which may create physician loyalty toward the company.
Dr. Morten Andersen of the University of Southern Denmark-Odense and colleagues investigated the effects of physicians participating in a pharmaceutical company-sponsored clinical trial that was aimed at improving patients' use of asthma medicine.
The study compared 10 practices involved in the trial with 165 control (non-trial-conducting) practices in Funen County, Denmark.
Both trial-conducting and control practices had a gradually increased use of the trial sponsor's medication, from 74.8 percent to 81.5 percent in trial-conducting practices and from 73.6 percent to 76.6 percent in control practices.
"Our study confirms the hypothesis that physician involvement in clinical trials is a powerful tool for influencing company-specific drug preferences," the researchers wrote. "Several mechanisms may be responsible, including setting up a gift relationship by payment to the trial-conducting physicians."
The research appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
