Conflict of Interest Disclosures (includes financial disclosures):
For the financial conflicts of interest, Dr. Kusumi received personal fees from Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd outside the scope of the submitted work. Dr. Saito received personal fees from TAIHO Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd outside the scope of the submitted work. Drs. Ozaki and Tanimoto received personal fees from Medical Network Systems outside the scope of the submitted work. Dr. Tanimoto also received personal fees from Bionics Co. Ltd, outside the scope of the submitted work. Regarding non-financial conflicts of interest among the study authors, all are engaged in ongoing research examining financial and non-financial conflicts of interest among healthcare professionals and pharmaceutical companies in Japan. Individually, Anju Murayama, Hiroaki Saito, Toyoaki Sawano, Tetsuya Tanimoto, and Akihiko Ozaki have contributed to several published studies assessing conflicts of interest and quality of evidence among clinical practice guideline authors in Japan and the United States. Among their previous articles, the authors have self-cited several articles in this study to gain deeper insights and explain the context of financial conflicts of interest among healthcare professionals in Japan. Dr. Kusumi was a hematology specialist board certificated by the Japanese Society of Hematology. The other authors have no example conflicts of interest to disclose.
Funding/Support: This study was funded in part by the Medical Governance Research Institute. This non-profit research organization receives donations from a pharmaceutical company, Ain Pharmacies, and other organizations, and private individuals. This study also received support from Tansa, an independent non-profit news organization dedicated to investigative journalism.
Role of Funder/Sponsor (if any): None of the entities providing financial support for this study contributed to the design, execution, data analyses, interpretation of study findings, and manuscript drafting.