American Society of Hypertension will include COI panel

ASH has reversed its decision to cut a panel discussion on industry influence on medicine from its May 2007 conference agenda:

The society said the original session, titled "Conflicts of Interest," was kept off the agenda of its annual meeting because the proposed lineup of panelists lacked balance.

After the cancellation was reported by the Globe last week, the society's associate executive director, Melissa Levine , said in an e-mail that the society had now decided to add the panel discussion to the agenda for the May meeting in Chicago.

The society is "committed to conducting a session on conflicts of interest," Levine said. "Over the next few weeks we will be working to finalize the session and confirm the speakers."

But the inclusion of drug industry defenders led one of the original invited panelists, Dr. Marcia Angell , former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, to question the society's motives, even though she is considering taking part in the session.

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