According to two research letters in JAMA Internal Medicine, on October 29, 2018, authors including Dr. Rishad Khan examined 18 clinical practice guidelines authored by 160 doctors. 49.4 percent declared they received payment in the practice guideline or supplemental materials. 31.3% of the doctors declared they were paid from industries marketing one of ten high-revenue medications recommended by a guideline. Over a quarter of physicians received payment of a high-revenue medication but did not disclose payment.
Pharmaceutical companies give these payments for a reason. As long as this practice continues, we will never know if practice guidelines are based on research evidence or represent another form of advertising.