SmithKline payoffs in the news again- Paxil at Brown

[Mort Zuckerman]

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Subject: SmithKline payoffs in the news again- Paxil at Brown

Date: Jul 26, 2008 10:58 AM

All psychotropics are brain damaging- SAYS THE *SCIENCE*:
http://www.actionlyme.org/TOP_AL_ALL.htm


http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/3517

Dr. Martin Keller, head of psychiatry at Brown University, is likely
to be the next
target in ongoing congressional investigations into the often too-
friendly relationship
between some doctors and pharmaceutical companies. Senator Charles E.
Grassley—Republican-Iowa—the
ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee is looking at
consulting fees Keller
received from drug companies for his research on the antidepressant
Paxil. Meanwhile,
Alison Bass, a former Globe reporter who wrote a book on Keller’s
research and the
legal trial and fallout, said the move was a long time coming. Keller
has never
been publicly disciplined or sanctioned for his role in a study that
hid the negative
consequences of Paxil while promoting only positive outcomes. Despite
this, “he
is still chief of psychiatry [at Brown] and pulling in millions of
dollars in research
funding from the drug companies and federal research agencies,” Bass
said.

Studies have shown that researchers paid by a company are more likely
to report
positive findings when evaluating that company’s drugs. The private
deals can directly
affect patient care, said Dr. William Niederhut, a psychiatrist in
private practice
in Denver who receives no industry money.

Recently we reported that Grassley was demanding the American
Psychiatric Association
provide an accounting of its financing. “I have come to understand
that money from
the pharmaceutical industry can shape the practices of nonprofit
organizations that
purport to be independent in their viewpoints and actions,” Grassley
said in a letter
to the association. In 2006, the latest year for which numbers are
available, the
drug industry accounted for about 30 percent of the association’s
$62.5 million
in financing, with half that money going to drug advertisements in
psychiatric journals
and exhibits at the annual meeting; the remainder sponsored
fellowships, conferences,
and industry symposiums at the annual meeting.

Dr. Alan F. Schatzberg of Stanford and the association’s president-
elect has $4.8
million stock holdings in a drug development company. Dr. Melissa P.
Dobell of
the University of Cincinnati reportedly worked for eight drug makers
and told university
officials that from 2005 to 2007 she earned about $100,000 in outside
income. Meanwhile,
AstraZeneca told Grassley it paid DelBello over $238,000 in that
period, making
some of those payments through MSZ Associates, an Ohio corporation
DelBello established
for “personal financial purposes.” In June, Grassley reported to
Congress that
Dr. Joseph Biederman, a renowned child psychiatrist at Harvard Medical
School, and
a colleague, Dr. Timothy E. Wilens, reported to university officials
earning several
hundred thousand dollars apiece in consulting fees from drug makers
from 2000 to
2007. They actually earned at least $1.6 million each. Another
Harvard group member,
Dr. Thomas Spencer, reported earning at least $1 million after being
pressed by
Grassley’s investigators.

A Vermont study found that on average, psychiatrists who received at
least $5,000
from makers of newer-generation antipsychotic drugs appear to have
written three
times as many prescriptions to children for the drugs as psychiatrists
who received
less or no funding. The drugs prescribed are not approved for most
uses in children,
who appear to be especially susceptible to the side effects.

A spokesman for Grassley’s office said the senator is looking into 30
physicians
from up to 20 universities, but wouldn’t comment on any specific
doctors.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 12:23 pm and is
filed under
Legal News, Pharmaceuticals.