More naming and shaming
Biased HT* authors
A couple of years ago Athina Tatsioni and her colleagues collected 114 editorials or reviews, authored by people with financial ties to hormone therapy (HT) manufacturers, in which there appeared to be bias in favour of HT. Click here for the paper. Or get the pdf here partisan perspectives.
Tatsioni identified five prolific authors of such biased editorials, and listed the articles in an appendix. However, she did not name the offenders. Readers had to find the appendix, count who had contributed the most, and check elsewhere for conflicts of interest.
So I’ve done that for you. Here are the experts who authored more than 10 articles each. Unless otherwise stated, conflicts are sourced from Climacteric‘s editorial board site here. Andrea Genazzani and Marco Gambacciani list no conflicts on that site so I’ve used other public sources here, and here. I’ve not found any public conflict of interest statements for Henry Seeger or Tomasino Simoncini.
| Expert | Links with the following manufacturers | No of HT favourable reviews/editorials authored |
| Marco Gambacciani University of Pisa, Italy | Bracco, Eli Lilly, General Electric, Igea, Lunar Corporation, MS&D, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Organon, Pfizer, P&G, Schering, Solvay, Wyeth. | 23 |
| Andrea Genazzani University of Pisa, Italy | Bracco, Eli Lilly, Igea, Lunar Corporation, MSD, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Organon, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Schering, Solvay, and Wyeth. | 39 |
| Professor Alastair MacLennan University of Adelaide, Australia | A variety of pharmaceutical companies | 19 |
| Professor Alfred O Mueck University Women’s Hospital of Tuebingen, Germany | Bayer-Schering, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Procter & Gamble, Schering-Plough/Merck Sharpe & Dohme and Solvay | 32 |
| Amos Pines | consultant for distributor who represents about 20 pharma companies | 21 |
| Henry Seeger | None found | 15 |
| Tomasino Simoncini | None found | 11 |
| Dr David W Sturdee,Solihull Hospital, Birmingham, UK | Amgen, Theramex, Procter & Gamble, Wyeth, Bayer Schering and Novo Nordisk. | 31 |
It appears that Andrea Genazzani, Marco Gambacciani, Alfred Mueck and David Sturdee were four of the biased editorialists. Who knows if Alastair MacLennan, or Amos Pines were the fifth.
Readers of reassuring articles about the safety of postmenopausal HT by these authors, may wish to bear this in mind. See also the original Naming and Shaming here, and the special case of John Stevenson here.
Jim Thornton
*Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) changed to hormone therapy (HT) Jan 2016
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