Writing on her blog "Honest Medicine," Julia Schopick points out that the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) used video news releases (VNRs) to promote two studies that later proved controversial, because the authors had neglected to disclose their financial ties to pharmaceutical companies. One study concluded that pregnant women risked relapsing into depression if they stopped taking antidepressants. The January 2006 VNR on the study featured lead author Dr. Lee Cohen, who is a "longtime consultant to three antidepressant makers, a paid speaker for seven of them and has his research work funded by four drug makers," reported the Wall Street Journal. The other study found a link between severe migraines in women and cardiovascular disease. The July 2006 VNR on that study featured lead author Dr. Tobias Kurth, who "has received research funding from the makers of Bayer aspirin, Tylenol and Advil, pain relievers sometimes used to treat migraines," reported the Associated Press. "If JAMA continues to produce and disseminate VNRs ... its staff must check the financial ties of their authors prior to publication," concludes Schopick.

Under a tough new code of ethics all staff and students at Stanford University's medical school, hospitals and clinics will not be able to accept any gifts from drug company representatives. The new policy comes into effect on October 1. "It's about time that this happened," said Alan Cassels, coauthor with Ray Moynihan of "Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients." Harvard Medical School professor Jerry Avorn told the Los Angeles Times that "even if the object is of trivial monetary value, it creates the notion of a friendship. They wouldn't be investing in those things if there weren't a payoff." Scott Lassman, a spokesperson for the drug industry's peak lobbying body, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, complained that restrictions on sales representatives' access to doctors "would be a serious mistake."