Transparency, Power and Influence in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Transparency in the realm of pharmaceuticals is a deeply contested policy issue. Doctors, patients, and their allies have fought for decades to make the evidence behind many prescription drugs publicly available. And while the level of transparency has improved significantly in recent years, a number of challenges remain. It's not clear, for example, whether the evidence now on offer is actually being used to make better decisions about which drugs to prescribe. Worse, there are growing concerns that the added transparency is giving cover to parallel efforts to lower regulatory standards for drug approval.
Drawing upon years of research and advocacy to increase transparency in pharmaceutical research and regulation-including insights reflected in the panelists' 2021 book, Transparency, Power and Influence in the Pharmaceutical Industry-this interdisciplinary panel discussion will interrogate the successes and failures of transparency, including in the context of COVID-19.