Conflicts of interest within the French regulatory agency: more progress needed.

In November 2009, the French drug regulatory agency (Afssaps) published the second report on its mechanism for handling the conflicts of interest of outside experts performing tasks within Afssaps. Despite the statutory requirements for experts to disclose their conflicts of interest every year, some of these experts do not. There is no procedure in place to verify their disclosure statements. In contravention of Afssaps's rules, more than half of the experts whose conflicts of interest were rated as "major" did not leave the room while a case with which they had ties was examined. Above all, expert evaluation that is free from the influence of drug companies needs to be encouraged and its value recognised.