There's no love lost between the pharmaceutical companies, regulators suspect. They fear that drug companies may be encouraging doctors to file reports of adverse reactions to a rival drug.
The practice has been suspected in Poland where drug regulators for the World Health Organization have noticed an unusually high reporting on one specific generic psychiatric drug. They fear that doctors have been encouraged by a rival drug firm to file the reports.
Poland's Office of Medicinal Products received more than a hundred 'suspicious' reports of adverse drug reactions from 90 doctors on the same drug, which represented 29 per cent of all drug reports for last year. One doctor made six separate reports about the drug.
The regulators reckon the reporting is part of a marketing drive by the rival firm, although they are still establishing evidence for their suspicions. The firm in question recently approached the WHO for a list of drug reactions to the rival drug that had been reported in Poland.
"This kind of underhand dealing for commercial competition is appalling," said Prof Ralph Edwards, the director at the WHO centre.
For us, it's a bit like Godzilla versus King Kong. We don't care who wins, but it's amusing to watch the scrap.