The American Society of Hypertension will include a panel discussion at its upcoming annual meeting about conflicts of interest related to financial ties between the drug industry and medical journals and societies, the Boston Globe reports. In December 2006, a panel discussion, titled "Conflicts of Interest," was rejected from the ASH annual meeting agenda because ASH said the proposed panel -- which included only critics of drug companies' practices -- "lacked balance," the Globe reports. However, Melissa Levine, ASH's associate executive director, recently said the society is "committed to conducting a session on conflicts of interest," adding, "Over the next few weeks we will be working to finalize the session and confirm the speakers." ASH invited two industry advocates to join the panel, one of whom has confirmed that he accepted the invitation, according to the Globe. Three drug industry critics invited to the original panel also were asked again to participate. One of those invitees, Jerry Avorn -- a Harvard Medical School professor and physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital who is considering accepting his invitation -- said, "This seems like a very different panel than the one originally proposed." He added that two industry advocates "will be expressing views that are quite different from those that were originally envisioned." According to the Globe, many professional medical societies across the nation "are grappling with ethical questions about how much drug industry money their officers, authors and presenters should accept and whether those financial relationships taint scientific and clinical recommendations, reports and medical journals" (Rowland, Boston Globe, 1/5).

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