Conflicts of interest by guideline writers
Hypertension experts created a disease, “prehypertension,” when they revised a U.S. treatment guideline for high blood pressure in May 2003. Nine of the 11 authors had financial ties to pharmaceutical companies that could benefit from the new guideline. Diuretics were recommended as a first course of treatment, but the experts said most people with hypertension would need two or more drugs to get below systolic pressure of 140.
