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Industry influence on research has been well documented.1 2 Corporate interests influence science by driving research agendas, manipulating the design, methods and conduct of research, and selectively publishing findings or affecting interpretation of findings.3 One of the most disturbing ways that industry influences science is by attempting to change the evaluation of science, particularly for its use in policy. For example, the tobacco industry worked with established and existing business coalitions including the American Petroleum Institute, National Rifle Association, and the American Iron and Steel Institute to legislate changes in how research should be evaluated before it could be cited as evidence supporting a policy. Their goal was ‘to promote legislative solutions to ensure that public policy is based on sound science’.4 These solutions included ‘(1) to gain passage of federal law on criteria/standards for epidemiological studies; and (2) to legislate public access to epidemiological data used in support of federal laws and regulations’.4 To advance this agenda, the tobacco industry identified potential supporters and opponents of data disclosure in the food, health, pharmaceutical, chemical, energy, transportation, insurance and waste products industries. These activities were part of the tobacco industry’s campaign to promote their version of ‘sound science’ and ‘good epidemiology’.5
McCambridge and colleagues6 provide yet another example of how two industries, apparently working together, have influenced a policy that is ostensibly meant to advance the use of evidence in policy. Their analysis of the development of the Brussels Declaration on ethics and principles for science and society policy-making shows that it ‘fails to address the need for safeguards to protect the integrity of science or policy from corporate interests’. In fact, their analysis suggests that corporate interests shaped the Declaration to enhance the ability of industry to influence evidence and policy. Nevertheless, the Brussels Declaration …