NYTimes: Congress v Harvard Biederman kid psychiatric drug cash

Tue Nov 25 10:17:34 CST 2008

[please forward]

The New York Times article (below) covers even more Congressional  
revelations about the way famous psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Biederman  
misused the prestige of his institution -- Harvard University -- to  
covertly get cash from psychiatric drug manufacturers inorder to  
promote the massive psychiatric drugging of kids with neuroleptics,  
also known as antipsychotics. At bottom see actions you can take.

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The New York Times -- 24 November 2008

Research Center Tied to Drug Company

By GARDINER HARRIS

When a Congressional investigation revealed in June that Dr. Joseph  
Biederman, a world-renowned child psychiatrist, had earned far more  
money from drug makers than he had reported to his university, he  
said that his interests were "solely in the advancement of medical  
treatment through rigorous and objective study."

Court documents reveal that Dr. Joseph Biederman, a renowned child  
psychiatrist, pushed Johnson & Johnson to fund a research center  
whose goal was "to move forward the commercial goals of J&J."

[article online with photo of Dr. Biederman]
http://tinyurl.com/biederman-bipolar or
http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/psych-drug-corp/congress/biederman- 
bipolar or
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/health/25psych.html

But e-mail messages and internal documents from Johnson & Johnson  
made public in a court filing reveal that Dr. Biederman pushed the  
company to finance a research center at Massachusetts General  
Hospital, in Boston, with a goal to "move forward the commercial  
goals of J.& J." The documents also show that the company prepared a  
draft summary of a study that Dr. Biederman, of Harvard, was said to  
have written.

Dr. Biederman's work helped to fuel a fortyfold increase from 1994 to  
2003 in the diagnosis of pediatric bipolar disorder and a rapid rise  
in the use of powerful, risky and expensive antipsychotic medicines  
in children.

Although many of his studies are small and often financed by drug  
makers, Dr. Biederman has had a vast influence on the field largely  
because of his position at one of the most prestigious medical  
institutions.

Massachusetts General said in a statement Monday that it took the  
accusations related to the research center "very seriously" and  
intended "to investigate these issues thoroughly."

Johnson & Johnson makes a popular antipsychotic medicine called  
Risperdal, or risperidone. More than a quarter of its use is in  
children and adolescents.

Last week, a panel of federal drug experts said that medicines like  
Risperdal were being used too cavalierly in children and that  
regulators must do more to warn doctors of their substantial risks.  
Other popular antipsychotic medicines, also referred to as  
neuroleptics, are Zyprexa, made by Eli Lilly; Seroquel, made by  
AstraZeneca; Geodon, made by Pfizer; and Abilify, made by Bristol- 
Myers Squibb.

Thousands of parents have sued AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Johnson &  
Johnson, claiming that their children were injured after taking the  
medicines; they also claim that the companies minimized the risks of  
the drugs.

As part of the lawsuits, plaintiffs' lawyers have demanded millions  
of documents from the companies. Nearly all have been provided under  
judicial seals, but a select few that mentioned Dr. Biederman became  
public after plaintiffs' lawyers sought a judge's order to require  
Dr. Biederman to be interviewed by them under oath.

In a motion filed two weeks ago, lawyers for the families argued that  
they should be allowed to interview Dr. Biederman under oath because  
his work had been crucial to the widespread acceptance of pediatric  
uses of antipsychotic medicines. To support this contention, the  
lawyers included more than two dozen documents, among them e-mail  
messages from Johnson & Johnson that mentioned Dr. Biederman. A judge  
has yet to rule on the request.

The documents offer an unusual glimpse into the delicate relationship  
that drug makers have with influential doctors.

In a November 1999 e-mail message, John Bruins, a Johnson & Johnson  
marketing executive, begs his supervisors to approve a $3,000 check  
to Dr. Biederman as payment for a lecture he gave at the University  
of Connecticut.

"Dr. Biederman is not someone to jerk around," Mr. Bruins wrote. "He  
is a very proud national figure in child psych and has a very short  
fuse."

Mr. Bruins wrote that Dr. Biederman was furious after Johnson &  
Johnson rejected a request that Dr. Biederman had made for a $280,000  
research grant. "I have never seen someone so angry," Mr. Bruins  
wrote. "Since that time, our business became non-existant (sic)  
within his area of control."

Mr. Bruins concluded that unless Dr. Biederman received a check soon,  
"I am truly afraid of the consequences."

A series of documents described the goals behind establishing the  
Johnson & Johnson Center for the study of pediatric psychopathology,  
where Dr. Biederman serves as chief.

A 2002 annual report for the center said its research must satisfy  
three criteria: improve psychiatric care for children, have high  
standards and "move forward the commercial goals of J.& J.," court  
documents said.

"We strongly believe," the report stated, "that the center's  
systematic scientific inquiry will enhance the clinical and research  
foundation of child psychiatry and lead to the safer, more  
appropriate and more widespread use of medications in children.

"Without such data, many clinicians question the wisdom of  
aggressively treating children with medications, especially those  
like neuroleptics, which expose children to potentially serious  
adverse events."

A February 2002 e-mail message from Georges Gharabawi, a Johnson &  
Johnson executive, said Dr. Biederman approached the company  
"multiple times to propose the creation" of the center. "The  
rationale of this center," the message stated, "is to generate and  
disseminate data supporting the use of risperidone in" children and  
adolescents.

Documents show that Johnson & Johnson gave the center $700,000 in  
2002 alone. Massachusetts General said in its statement on Monday  
that grant agreements indicated the center "was for scientific and  
educational purposes only and not for purposes of promoting, directly  
or indirectly, the products of Johnson & Johnson and its affiliates."

A statement Monday from Janssen Pharmaceutica, a unit of Johnson &  
Johnson, said it helped finance the research center in 2002 "with an  
objective to conduct rigorous clinical trials to clarify appropriate  
use and dosing of Risperdal in children."

A June 2002 e-mail message to Dr. Biederman from Dr. Gahan Pandina, a  
Johnson & Johnson executive, included a brief abstract of a study of  
Risperdal in children with disruptive behavior disorder. The message  
said the study was intended to be presented at the 2002 annual  
meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

"We have generated a review abstract," Dr. Pandina wrote, "but I must  
review this longer abstract before passing this along."

One problem with the study, Dr. Pandina wrote, is that the children  
given placebos and those given Risperdal both improved significantly.  
"So, if you could," Dr. Pandina added, "please give some thought to  
how to handle this issue if it occurs."

The draft abstract that Dr. Pandina put in the e-mail message,  
however, stated that only the children given Risperdal improved,  
while those given placebos did not. Dr. Pandina asked Dr. Biederman  
to sign a form listing himself as the author so the company could  
present the study to the conference, according to the message.

"I will review this morning," responded Dr. Biederman, according to  
the documents. "I will be happy to sign the forms if you could kindly  
send them to me." The documents do not make clear whether he approved  
the final summary of the brief abstract in similar form or asked to  
read the longer report on the study.

Drug makers have long hired professional writers to compose  
scientific papers and then recruited well-known doctors to list  
themselves as the author. The practice, known as ghostwriting, has  
come under intense criticism recently, and medical societies, schools  
and journals have condemned it.

In June, a Congressional investigation revealed that Dr. Biederman  
had failed to report to Harvard at least $1.4 million in outside  
income from Johnson & Johnson and other makers of antipsychotic  
medicines.

In one example, Dr. Biederman reported no income from Johnson &  
Johnson for 2001 in a disclosure report filed with the university.  
When asked by Senator Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican who is  
leading the Congressional inquiry, to check again, Dr. Biederman said  
he had received $3,500. But Johnson & Johnson told Mr. Grassley that  
it paid $58,169 to Dr. Biederman in 2001.

A Harvard spokesman, David J. Cameron, said Monday that the  
university was still reviewing Mr. Grassley's accusations against Dr.  
Biederman. Mr. Cameron added that the university had not seen the  
drug company documents in question and that it was not directly  
involved in the child psychiatry center at Massachusetts General.

Calls to Dr. Biederman were not returned.

- end -

~~~~~~~~~~~~

  ** ACTION ** ACTION ** ACTION **

* Please forward to all appropriate places on and off Internet.

* You may e-mail letter to editor of less than 150 words to The NY  
Times, including your contact info, here: letters at nytimes.com

* You may e-mail Harvard President Drew Faust asking that Dr.  
Biederman be fired immediately at Faustpresident at harvard.edu

* You can encourage the Harvard Crimson to investigate Dr. Biederman  
at editorial at thecrimson.com, or submit a letter between 100 and 300  
words to this student newspaper at letters at thecrimson.com.

According to a search, The Crimson has only mentioned Dr. Biederman  
once regarding this Congressional investigation, back on 16 June  
2008. The NY Times and other media, however, have written about Dr.  
Biederman plenty of times, to read some of these articles see:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/search?SearchableText=biederman

* It's USA Thanksgiving this week. So how about we all *thank*  
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and call for even more great work:

http://grassley.senate.gov/contact.cfm
~~~~~~~~~~~~

MindFreedom International has for years called for congressional  
investigation of the corruption caused by the power and profits of  
the psychiatric drug industry.

MindFreedom International is a 100 percent independent nonprofit  
united to win activist campaigns for human rights and alternatives in  
mental health.

Join, donate or renew early here during the Fall MFI Support Drive:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/join-donate

Please forward.

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