Conflits d'intérêts et expertises dans le domaine de la santé : l'annulation par le Conseil d'État d'une recommandation de l'HAS

A person in a conflict of interest is likely to lose his impartiality in his words or his decisions. It is primarily in business and finance as there are provisions to prevent illegal catches of interest, i.e. that people take advantage of their situation in order to remove personal advantage. Criminal sanctions have been applied to this offense in the relations between private individuals and public services. In the medical field, the issue of conflict of interest has been the subject of considerable debate, particularly in North America because of the links between health professionals and pharmaceutical industry who may be the cause of publication bias research results. In France, the word “interest which might prejudice the independence” was introduced after 2002 in several articles of the Code of Public Health. Previously it was the breach of duty of probity and independence of experts that conflicts of interest were identified and punished. For the first time in April 2011, the “Conseil d'État” (the Highest administrative Court) overturned a recommendation of the HAS for non-declaration of interests by the experts of the commission.