An editorial board member of a journal submitted an unsolicited review article on a drug. The editor said the journal would consider the article, but suspected that the article had been commissioned or even written by a drugs company. S/he stipulated that the author must provide a financial disclosure statement before the article could be accepted. The journal published the review article, which had been refereed by two independent reviewers. The author disclosed in his competing interests that he had been a paid consultant for the company that markets the drug. Several months after publication, an agent for the drug company ordered reprints of the article. The agent requested the wording: “This literature review was supported by [X]” be included on the cover sheet of each reprint. The agent was advised that this statement could not be added because the author had not disclosed it. The agent insisted, so the journal contacted the author. The author asked: “Does the final article have these words or something that states the article was in part supported by [X]?” A copy of the agent’s wording and the competing interest statement from the published article were sent to the author, who replied that he was fine with it as long as the publisher was. The author was then asked to explain the extent of the drug company’s involvement in writing the review article. The author replied that the competing interest statement in the article was accurate; the review had been written independently of any pharmaceutical company, and that the requested statement from the agent was inappropriate. The author was contacted again to point out the contradiction in his two replies. At the same time the agent was asked to question the drug company as to whether it had paid the author to write the review, and to confirm the extent to which the drug company had been involved in preparation of the manuscript. The agent did not reply; neither did the drug company. Eventually, the agent cancelled the reprint order. The author finally replied to confirm that he had been confused by the original request, thinking that clarification of whether he was a paid consultant to the drug company was required. He said that when it became apparent in a follow-up email that the drug company wanted the extra statement added, he realised it was inappropriate. The author assured the editors that the drug company would write a letter of explanation soon. The letter has yet to arrive.
- This case raises serious concerns. The connection was not made clear and this is a full conflict of interest. - The paper should be retracted. - The author should be asked explicitly if s/he had been paid by drug companies to write this review.