Conflct of interest and literature spin and JAMA

A recent article by Boutron and Altman in JAMA (2010, 303:2058) addressed the issue of spin in the medical literature. They stated a positive association between industry funding and a positive outcome of a publication. This is highly relevant since previous studies have shown a correlation, but no one has shown wrong doing. In fact its has been logically argued that given the massive investment of money needed for development that the private sector has to be more careful in designing trials that will allow purported benefits of new drugs or devices to be uncovered. This being imponderable the discussion can go on forever and become a chest beating exercise. However something very interesting has happened...

In the article by Boutron, they lacked a formal statistical analysis supporting their statement, and a letter to the editor by Allison and Cope (2010, 304:965) requested an analysis of "spin" and source of funding (primary methodology of their study was spin determination). They report that spin was not associated with source of funding (p value 0.6). I could spin this the Pharmascold way and say there may be a trend or spin it my way and say it not significant. We are better off just looking at the data and conclude there is no evidence that funding changes the RPMs (i.e. SPIN)!!