The Lancet and advertorials

Non-scientifi c journals sometimes contain advertisements disguised as editorial content by using the same font and layout (“advertorials”). Reading the paper by Tony Ho and others (Dec 20, p 2115) made us wonder whether The Lancet is following this trend. No fewer than eight of the 12 authors, including the fi rst and corresponding author, are employed by Merck, the funding sponsor of the study. Moreover, data were analysed and the process supervised by employees of Merck. Three employees drafted the fi rst version of the manuscript. Three out of four authors not employed by Merck report receiving industry support. This information, drawn from the contributors, acknowledgments, and confl ict of interest sections of the paper, raises the question of which (academic) researcher, independent of the sponsor, can vouch for the integrity of the data and the presentation of the results of this paper. More generally, one could ask at which level of confl ict of interest a paper should not be accepted for publication in an independent scientifi c journal such as The Lancet. In our view at least the fi rst and last author should not be employees of the funding sponsor. Furthermore, statistical analysis of the data should not be done (only) by the sponsor. Employees of the study sponsor are unique in that they have no confl ict of interest—their one interest is the welfare of the company and its stock price. They have no academic position so they cannot be expected to safeguard the interest of the scientifi c community.