| Study characteristics |
| Methods |
To investigate whether financial ties to drug companies bias FDA drug advisory committee members’ voting on drug approval recommendations. FDA advisory committee meeting held between 1997 and 2012 |
| Data |
416 advisory committee reports and 1483 advisory committee members |
| Comparisons |
Advisory committee members with financial conflicts of interest (defined as financial ties to any drug company) and advisory committee members without financial conflicts of interest |
| Outcomes |
Recommendations (favourable recommendations defined as votes in favour of the drug) |
| Funding source |
The study received support from the Searle Civil Justice Institute and no additional funding related to any for‐profit organisation was disclosed |
| Declaration of conflicts of interest |
Conflicts of interest not described |
| Notes |
|
| Risk of bias |
| Item |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Adequate document inclusion process |
Unclear |
Not possible to determine |
| Adequate coding of conflicts of interest |
Unclear |
Not possible to determine |
| Adequate coding of recommendations |
Unclear |
Not possible to determine |
| Adequate dealing with confounding |
No |
Compared committee meetings of different drugs used for different diseases |
