[Understanding the distrust towards the assessment of medicines. Beyond conflict of interests]

This article aims at analyzing mechanisms leading to a situation of mistrust about the scientific evaluation of the medicinal product, beyond issues related to links of interests. The assumption is that conflicts of interest are only one component of this mistrust. It doesn't explain all social controversies affecting this sector, in particular the credibility of drug evaluation systems. We explore here how, during the six stages of certification that characterize the trajectory of the drug and its evaluation - the functioning of scientific production and collective representations contribute to this mistrust. Without any analyses on the precise mechanisms of this mistrust, the loss of legitimacy of institutions and of scientific evaluation will increase. This goes hand in hand with a potential risk to public health.