WaPo Special Report: Biased Research, Big Profits

Peter Whoriskey's story -- As drug industry’s influence over research grows, so does the potential for bias -- starts with research on Avandia (in comparison with two other drugs) in which pretty much everyone had a financial connection with GSK:

Whether these ties altered the report on Avandia may be impossible for readers to know. But while sorting through the data from more than 4,000 patients, the investigators missed hints of a danger that, when fully realized four years later, would lead to Avandia’s virtual disappearance from the United States:

The drug raised the risk of heart attacks.

“If you looked closely at the data that was out there, you could see warning signs,” said Steven E. Nissen, a Cleveland Clinic cardiologist who issued one of the earliest warnings about the drug. “But they were overlooked.”