Senate Probes Columbia Prof And A Non-Profit
8 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // October 16th, 2008 // 4:26 pm
The latest doctors to be investigated as part of the Senate inquiry into relationships between industry and academia are affiliated with Columbia University and the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, a non-profit that is the sponsor of the annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics conference, a premier forum for new cardiac technologies.
In a joint effort, the US Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Special Committee on Aging sent letters (here and here) seeking info about industry payments to docs associated with both institutions. Many of the names on the CRF faculty also show up on the roster at Columbia’s Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy. The device makers mentioned are Boston Scientific, Medinol, Abbott Labs, Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson.
The thread running between these groups is Martin Leon, a Columbia University cardiologist and controversial figure who runs CRF (see photo). Last year, for instance, he was banned by The New England Journal of Medicine from writing reviews or editorials for the next five years after he leaked embargoed clinical trial information (look here).
And in September 2004, a satellite feed at the TCT conference showed an experimental heart valve being inserted into a patient in Italy, who went into heart failure as the audience watched the screen. The patient later died. As it turned out, Leon had a financial interest in the valve, BusinessWeek wrote, because he co-founded the company that invented the device and stood to earn $1.5 million if the valve met certain milestones, including treating patients successfully.
The episode raised questions about Leon, because CRF uses donations and fees from device makers to stage the annual TCT gathering. At Columbia, he helped start several cardiac device maker through a corporate “incubator” he co-founded. He also has served as a paid adviser for other startups. And companies to which he has had close ties have been featured prominently at TCT, creating what the mag wrote was a perception that some companies are “favored for reasons other than medical merit.”
The committees, by the way, are championing the Physicians Payments Sunshine Act, which would require drug and device makers to disclose payments to docs, and have been conducting various inquiries. Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat who chairs the Aging committee, is probing the American College of Cardiology. And Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Finance committee, is in the midst of investigating undisclosed conflicts of interest among academic researchers who receive NIH grants while also receiving payments from drugmakers.
Marilyn Mann
Here’s a post by Roy Poses on Health Care Renewal that discusses the editorial by Doug Weaver, president of the ACC.
http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/10/another-industry-supported-physician.html
Here’s Weaver’s editorial:
http://content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/content/full/52/15/1274
BPW
Not only is TCT heavily funded by device companies, but Big Pharma pumps tons of money into it as well. In addition, CRF does many massive clinical trials for Big pharma, with a few companies driving most of the business. This investigation could be a real “eye-opener” regarding another major university link to Big Pharma. Can looking into Harvard and Duke, with all of their highly-paid KOLs, be far off?
Anonymous
Harvard had a relationship with Merck that involved sending videotapes of scientific lectures by faculty to Merck for dissemination among Merck scientists.
I do not know if/what the quid pro quo was, if any.
Doug Bremner MD
Does that mean they are going to take away their cardiac caths? Gawd.
Doc
Pharma and device companies are funding meetings, etc that benefit doctors?!? I’m shocked there is gambling in this establishment.
Thom
Doug, before you were writing that Grassley was picking on psychiatrists. Does this latest comment mean that you think Grassley/Kohl are now focusing unfairly on cardiologists?
Doug Bremner MD
Quite the opposite, I am actually thrilled that he is picking on cardiologists now, since their booty chests are likely so much larger that it will wow the public even more. Also, my narcissism is flattered that the Senator or one of his staff may actually have read my ‘open letter’ to him in which I suggested that he go look at the cardiologists.
http://www.beforeyoutakethatpill.com/2008/10/open-letter-to-senator-grassley.html
Ha!
Disenchanted
I have worked with Dr. Leon and feel he should be held accountable for continuously leaking study data which introduces bias and could potentially put patients at risk. My fear is Dr. Leon has become more concerned with financial gain then with abiding with the principles of the Hippocratic oath.