Comments on: University Will Scrutinize Professor For Conflicts

By: Prescription Project » Blog Archive » Blogbytes

Prescription Project » Blog Archive » Blogbytes — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:03:18 +0000

[...] of a university enforcing its policy of financial disclosure for physicians. Pharmagossip and Pharmalot posted on a story in The Cincinnati Enquirer that the University of Cincinnati has a closer eye on [...]

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:24:27 +0000

So, here are the facts in this case:
1) The university is seeing that their funding from the federal government is flattening and may shrink
2) The federal government has been, year after year, putting less money into health research and education
3) The university tells its faculty and researchers to go look for industry money
4) Some academics do exactly that
…and now…
5) The government is very critical of anyone going after industry money
6) The university is critical of its people getting industry money (yes, not disclosing completely, but they still wanted the money)

…talk about hypocrisy and in consistency.

By: LILLI

LILLI — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:50:56 +0000

I tnink pharmalot has a special group correspoding with each other for resons not really related for the concern of people.

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:52:45 +0000

I also comment on Andy’s take each week and emal him directly with no response, EVER. Must be a very busy man to not care about looking at the FDA Adverse reporting system to see that there are now more than 2200 adverse event reports regarding hernia mesh and that is not the Kugel Mesh or the Bard Composix, those 2200 reports are for the various other hernia meshes that are being implanted into patients. Ed Keep up the good work, your site is very imformative, But we could use your help to get the word out about what these meshes are doing to people.
Jim

By: LILLI

LILLI — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:34:31 +0000

Congress gets reports from the Government Accountability Office, but they allow the conflict of interest to continue. Read this report GAO-04-31 University Research and the other constant reports. Why do elcted officals alloiw this to happen?
For a duration this has been rported and why doesn’t congress discipline the guilty? Because they are also guitly!

By: andy

andy — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:32:37 +0000

How Ezetimibe (Zetia) was tested:

(CHERYL CORNACCHIA The Gazette Tuesday, February 24, 2004):

‘When a company contacted Colin Rose and offered to pay him $6,000 to refer patients to a drug study, they had the wrong doctor. Rose, a cardiologist at the Montreal General Hospital, not only said no, but he passed the written offer to the College des Medecins du Quebec, suggesting it investigate the ethics of paying doctors to refer patients. ‘

I’m about the last one on Earth they should have contacted,’ Rose said yesterday. It turns out that the physicians’ college doesn’t investigate those kinds of cases, but the doctor is no less upset by the offer to send patients to the study, which was sponsored by Merck Frosst. Rose, who is also an assistant professor of medicine at McGill University, is outspoken about what he sees as an increasingly cozy relationship between doctors and drug companies. He says it undermines doctors’ will to suggest alternatives like lifestyle changes instead of prescription drugs.

The hypercholesterolemia and coronary heart disease study to which Rose referred is being conducted by the Clinical Research Consultant Group at the Seaforth Medical Building on Cte des Neiges Rd. The group’s letter to Rose, dated Nov. 18, 2003, detailed how he would receive an honorarium of $6,000 if he referred at least one patient being treated for high cholesterol and heart disease. He would have been required to perform a physical exam of the patients at the beginning and end of the study and write the initial prescription. ‘

Nurses employed by the group would do the rest - seeing patients throughout the 12-week study. The study is evaluating the cholesterol-lowering efficacy of a 10-milligram dose of a drug called Ezetimibe when given with a 10-milligram or 20-milligram dose of Atorvastatin, another cholesterol-lowering drug. Both drugs are approved for use in Canada.

Rose later received an e-mail from Bernice Pynn, the lead researcher of the drug study, saying ‘at this time there is no discussion of publication’ of the study results. Pynn, a biochemist, was unavailable for comment yesterday. However, an assistant at the clinical research group confirmed the multisite study is sponsored by Merck Frosst. So far, she said, 15 patients are enrolled in Montreal. Vincent Lamoureux, a spokesperson for Merck Frosst in Kirkland, said doctors are sometimes compensated for their time. However, he said, he was unfamiliar with the study Rose cited, even though ‘there definitely seems to be a link to some of what we do.’

By: DeWaarheid

DeWaarheid — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:41:54 +0000

I recall sitting in on the IRB section of a P&T meeting at a hospital in my area sometime ago. The director of P&T and the director of Pharmacy were red-faced over the number of “projects” going on within the instituion without approval of the hospital IRB committee. The doctors were lining their pockets with the monies from these projects while using hospital resources (nurses, administrators, telecom, supplies, etc) and effectively opening the hospital up to liability which it may not have been aware of. I hear advertising on the radio daily to participate in clinical trials. I know that my dad has been involved in at least two in the past few years. And apparently there is a sub-culture of professional “trial subjects.” Giving blood is one thing, but constantly rolling the dice on new meds is another.

Unfortuantely, pharma’s deep pockets have created ethical issues for everyone.

By: Duane Sherry

Duane Sherry — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:14:35 +0000

Ed,

Good to see someone is watching these ‘researchers’, and psychiatry ‘professors’.

Great post!

Thanks,
Duane