[Pharmaceutical companies as sponsors of clinical trials--advantages and limitations]

The therapeutic progress achieved in the second half of this century was made possible only due to the interest taken by the pharmaceutical industry in the research field. It can be considered as the primum movens of the therapeutic revolution which has strongly benefited the humanity in these last decades. The clinical trials of new drugs constitute an integral part of the pharmaceutical and medical research. However its complexity and the costs involved make its execution impossible without the help or sponsorship of the pharmaceutical firms. Even in the more advanced countries it would be unthinkable that clinical trials could be carried out without the assistance of the pharmaceutical industry. The sponsorship by the pharmaceutical firms turns the relationship doctor-firm into a symbiotic association as both the parties reap benefits thereof: the physician because he is able to satisfy his inquisitiveness and his interest for the clinical research and the pharmaceutical firm because through these trials it will collect the information it requires. Besides having to bear the expenses inherent to the research, the sponsoring firms equally contribute for other pursuits usually of academical character and of interest to the investigator. Therefore it is not rare that these firms assume the costs of presence of these investigators in scientific meetings or to contribute for the arrangements of such meetings or even subsidise the acquisition of the equipment for the hospital services, etc.--measures which in countries with poor investments in research sector, such as Portugal, may constitute the only possibility to be carried out.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)