Debates NO

Like any other medical specialty, family medicine needs to engage in research in order to expand its evidence base. With drug companies funding the bulk of clinical research,1 it is natural for family physicians to turn to the pharmaceutical industry for funding—natural, but a serious mistake. There are 3 big reasons for look-ing elsewhere for research dollars: drug companies have a narrow range of interests; many of the postapproval studies that they fund are “seeding trials”; and the results of industry-funded research are often biased. Range of interests For sound economic reasons, companies are interested in funding research that will increase the sales of their products. At the same time, many of the problems that family medicine deals with have nothing to do with drug therapy (eg, dealing with teenage sexual confusion) an