Tag Archives: GlaxoSmithKline

Feds Want Glaxo Exec To Testify In Stevens Case

The trial of former GlaxoSmithKline lawyer Lauren Stevens gets under way this week and federal prosecutors hope to force a Glaxo exec to testify, according to documents filed in federal court last week. The feds are trying to compel James Millar, a vp of strategic pricing, contracting and marketing to take the stand in their quest to convict Stevens of obstruction of justice.

Stevens, you may recall, was first indicted last November for obstructing an FDA probe into off-label marketing of the Wellbutrin SR antidepressant and making false statements to the agency. More recently, the indictment was tossed, because prosecutors incorrectly portrayed her defense to a grand jury. However, they subsequently issued another indictment earlier this month.

American Psychiatric Association Stunned Again with Ghostwriting Controversy

Like an aging, punch drunk fighter struggling through the twelfth round, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) can’t seem to slip the punches coming its direction. Last week, a host of blogs went after them for refusing to print a letter written by three academics that was critical of a medical textbook the APA published with help from the ghostwriting company Scientific Therapeutics Information (STI).

The letter criticized the APA for failing to publish records that explain the provenance of the textbook, including drafts, contracts with STI and/or GlaxoSmithKline, and any communications regarding editing. The text’s purported authors are Dr. Charles Nemeroff of the University of Miami and Dr. Alan Schatzberg of Stanford University.

As The New York Times reported, the textbook was funded by GlaxoSmithKline. Author and blogger Dr. Danny Carlat reviewed the book and wrote that it read like “an advertisement for Paxil.”

Yesterday, a writer over at MIWatch landed a blistering combination on the APA. When she poked them for a response, the APA covered up and peeked back through their gloves. “The APA’s official response has been unconvincing,” she jabbed.

She then landed a solid uppercut.

American Psychiatric Association’s Ghost Written (Allegedly Pharma Funded) Book Magically ‘Disappears’

File this under The Case of The Missing Book. When last seen, Scientific Therapeutics Information was at the center of an ongoing controversy over an allegedly ghostwritten book – yes, an entire book – that was published in 1999 by the American Psychiatric Association. Funding came from a grant provided by SmithKline Beecham, which is now part of GlaxoSmithKline (back story).

The listed co-authors were Charles Nemeroff, who chairs the psychiatry department at the University of Miami medical school, and Alan Schatzberg, who until recently chaired the psychiatry department at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Both men were at the center of a long-running probe by the US Senate Finance Committee into undisclosed conflicts of interest among academic researchers. They were also regular speakers for Glaxo, which makes the Paxil antidepressant

New “Study” Claiming Brain Differences in “Troubled Teens” is Totally Bogus—

News headlines today are touting a “new study” that shows boys with “Conduct Disorder” have differences in “size and structure of their brain” that MAY be linked to behavior. Before we point out just how lame this new study is on a scientific level – let’s start with the fact that the study was funded by Wellcome Trust. If the name Wellcome sounds familiar it’s because it was named after, and established in order to administer the fortune of American born pharmaceutical giant, Sir Henry Wellcome (Glaxo-Wellcome later became GlaxoSmithKline). Secondly, the study authors admitted, they couldn’t conclude a thing….