OT:Harvard Psychiatrists Under Fire for Drug-Company Funding

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Harvard Psychiatrists Under Fire for Drug-Company Funding

Wall Street Journal Blogs - New York,NY*

Posted by Hensley

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/06/09/harvard-psychiatrists-under-

fire-for-drug-company-funding/

A controversial Harvard psychiatrist whose research and

recommendations have paved the way for the wide use of antipsychotic

drugs in kids has received more than $1.6 million in consulting fees

from drugmakers since 2000, and he failed to properly disclose much

of the funding, the New York Times reports.

ph Biederman (pictured) is a polarizing figure in psychiatry. As

the Boston Globe put it in a profile last year: " No one has done

more to convince Americans that even small children can suffer the

dangerous mood swings of bipolar disorder than Dr. ph Biederman

of Massachusetts General Hospital. " When asked in 2007 by the Globe

about his drug company funding, he declined to provide it, but said

Harvard Medical School and Mass General approved all his income.

Two colleagues of Biederman's also earned at least $1 million in

fees from drugmakers from 2000 to 2007 and may not have reported the

funding properly. The discrepancies were found in documents provided

to Congressional investigators. A NYT graphic here summarizes the

issues and provides comments from the three psychiatrists.

The disclosure gaps could violate NIH rules on conflict of interest

and could lead to sanctions. Policies at Harvard Mass General forbid

researchers from conducting clinical tests with a drug if they

receive payments greater than $20,000 from the company that makes

it, according to a letter from Sen. Grassley (R-Iowa).

Last fall Grassley asked Harvard and Mass General for the conflict-

of-interest forms from the doctors as part of his look into

financial ties between drugmakers and doctors. The forms were

a " mess, " he said, and made it look as if the doctors had only taken

a few hundred thousand dollars sums from industry over a seven-year

period. After the doctors took another whack at disclosures and

Congressional investigators compiled figures from drugmakers, the

amounts involved soared to more than $1 million per doctor.

From the Senate floor last week, Grassley asked, " Why weren't

Harvard and Mass General

watching over these doctors? The answer is simple: They trusted

these physicians to honestly report this money. " Grassley doesn't

and has introduced the Physician Payments Sunshine Act to require

reporting of payments by makers of drugs, devices and medical

supplies. You can read Grassley's full comments and letters he sent

to Harvard, Mass General and NIH by clicking on the PDF icon on the

right.

Bonus Reaction: Blogger Philip Dawdy at Furious Seasons

writes, " What's stunning to me is just how much money these

researchers were pulling in. " He also provides a link to a rundown

of current Biederman trials.

Photo from Massachusetts General Hospital

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