Data from: Financial conflicts of interest of clinicians making submissions to the panCanadian Oncology Drug Review: a descriptive study

Objectives: This study examines financial conflict-of-interest (FCOI) of
clinicians who made submissions to the panCanadian Oncology Drug Review
(pCODR), the arm of the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technology in Health
that recommends whether oncology drug-indications should be publicly
funded. Final reports from pCODR published between October 2016 and
February 2019 were examined. Design: Descriptive study. Data sources:
Website of panCanadian Oncology Drug Review. Interventions: None. Primary
and secondary outcomes: The primary outcome is the number of submissions
declaring FCOI. Secondary outcomes are the number of times where
clinicians agreed and disagreed with preliminary recommendation from pCODR
and the association between the distribution of individual clinicians’
FCOI and pCODR’s funding recommendations. Results: There were 46
drug-indication reports from pCODR. Clinicians made 261 submissions.
Clinicians declared they received payments from companies 323 times and
named 38 different companies making those payments a total of 500 times.
Financial conflicts with drug companies were declared in 176 (66.3%) of
all submissions. In 21 (45.7%) of the 46 drug-indications, 50% or more of
the clinicians had a conflict with the company making the drug. Clinicians
commented on 37 preliminary recommendations. In all 25 where pCODR
recommended funding or conditional funding the clinicians either agreed or
agreed in part. pCODR recommended that the drug-indication not be funded
12 times and 9 times clinicians disagreed with that recommendation. The
distribution of clinician responses was statistically significantly
different depending on whether pCODR recommended funding/conditional
funding or do not fund p < 0.0001 (Fisher exact test). The
distribution of clinicians’ FCOI differed depending on whether the
recommendation was fund/conditional fund or do not fund p = 0.027 (Fisher
exact test). Conclusion: Financial conflicts with pharmaceutical companies
are widespread among experts making submissions to the pCODR.