Federal health minister orders independent review of opioid guidelines after conflict-of-interest controversy
A member of the voting committee received financial compensation from opioid drug companies
Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott has ordered an independent scientific review of recent opioid prescription guidelines that were published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal last week.
This comes after news that one of the members of the voting committee had received financial compensation from Purdue Pharma Canada and other companies that market opioid medications.
"We remain somewhat concerned," Philpott told CBC News. "If these guidelines are going to be useful they have to have the confidence of the doctors who will be using them and obviously the public as well."
She is asking the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to put together an independent committee to review the new guidelines to ensure that they accurately reflect the evidence.
And she has formally asked McMaster University to prepare a full account of how conflicts of interest might have occurred.