BMAT 2012 · Question 30 · Assumption
SaveAuthors of articles on health and medical treatments may be sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, by receiving a fee or financial support for their research. The public need to know what weight they should put on these articles when they are assessing evidence from various sources. In the USA, newspapers and broadcasting companies are legally obliged to declare potential conflicts of interest of authors or contributors. We should introduce the same law in the UK.
Which of the following are assumptions underlying the above argument? 1 Authors who receive fees from pharmaceutical companies give a one-sided view of the effectiveness and safety of new medical treatments. 2 Companies that sponsor authors of articles on medical treatments aim to influence the content of the articles. 3 The reliability of articles on medical treatments cannot be fairly judged without information about sponsorship by pharmaceutical companies.