Marketing medicines through randomised controlled trials: the case of interferon

Abstract

Randomised clinical trials are regarded as a most helpful tool to relieve medical practice of subjectivity. Interferon became a part of everyday clinical practice through randomised clinical trials. Despite initial disappointment with its clinical efficacy, interferon became legitimised as a part of medical practice. Randomised clinical trials had the side effect of widening interferon's therapeutic profile and were central to the marketing strategies of pharmaceutical companies. The use and interpretation of randomised clinical trials differ substantially for experimental drugs in serious illness and for research into less serious diseases