Healthy Skepticism Library item: 14655

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Silverman E.
Talk Is Not Cheap: NPR Host Has Ties To Pharma
Pharmalot 2008 Nov 21
http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/11/talk-is-not-cheap-npr-host-has-ties-to-pharma/#more-17879

Full text:

Last May, National Public Radio talk-show host Fred Goodwin was, himself, the subject of a great deal of chatter. An episode of his program, “The Infinite Mind,” which is heard on 300 NPR stations, featured three experts who discussed the controversial link between antidepressants and suicide. And all four, including Goodwin, declared that worries about the drugs have been overblown (back story).
But there was a catch: Goodwin never pointed out that all three guests had ties to pharma, or that the show received “unrestricted” from drugmakers, including Lilly, which sells Prozac and Cymbalta. The segment, by the way, aired just two months after UK regulators concluded a four-year investigation of Glaxo’s Paxil and found the drugmaker had been aware since 1998 that its pill was associated with a higher risk of suicidal behavior in adolescents (back story).
Now, Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the US Senate Finance Committee, reveals Goodwin, a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, also has substantial ties to pharma, including…drumroll…Glaxo. According to Glaxo documents given to Grassley’s sleuths, since 2000, Glaxo paid Goodwin more than $1.2 million in speaking fees and over $100,000 in expenses (see chart below).
And so Grassley, who is sharply critical of NPR for failing to enforce its own conflict policies, is asking the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, both of which have underwritten his program, about their disclosure policies. UPDATE: The New York Times is on the story and writes that Bill Lichtenstein, the program’s producer, was unaware of Goodwin’s financial ties and says earlier this year, Goodwin denied receiving any funding. Margaret Low Smith, NPR’s vp, says the show will be removed from the satellite service next week and innsists it would not have aired if NPR had known of Goodwin’s ties (look here).
This is what Grassley entered into the Congressional Record on Wednesday:
“GlaxoSmithKline pays him around $2,500 for every talk his gives on treatments for bipolar disorder and depression. These talks concerned several drugs such as Wellbutrin, Eskalith, and Lamictal. Based on documents that my office received from GlaxoSmithKline, Dr. Goodwin gives these talks to doctor groups around the country. So far this year, Glaxo reports that the company paid Dr. Goodwin over
$130,000 for over 50 different talks…
“In the fine print of an article he published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2003, Dr. Goodwin acknowledged that he ‘has served on the speaker’s bureaus of Glaxo, Solvay, Janssen, Pfizer, Lilly, AstraZeneca, and Bristol-Myers Squibb; and has served as a consultant for Glaxo, Solvay, Pfizer, Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb Elan, and Novartis.’ For example, over the last seven years, he received over $1.3 million in speaking fees and honoraria from GlaxoSmithKline for giving over 480 talks.
“Dr. Goodwin was very busy the week that the episode of ‘Prozac Nation: Revisited started airing last March 26. GlaxoSmithKline’s records show that the company paid Dr. Goodwin for several talks he gave that week on bipolar disorder and Lamictal. In fact, records show that he gave around eight talks at $2500 each, bringing him around $20,000 in payments. Several of the talks were done by teleconference, but Dr. Goodwin also spoke about Lamictal at Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse in Birmingham, Michigan, and the Rosebud Steak House in Schaumburg, Illinois…
“Based upon the information provided to my staff, Dr. Goodwin was also very active on behalf of Glaxo in 2005. That year, Glaxo paid Dr. Goodwin over $300,000 in speaking fees and around $25,000 in expenses to discuss their products. And this was the same year that he hosted an episode for “The Infinite Mind” on bipolar disorder in kids. Again, there was no disclosure on the show about Dr. Goodwin’s financial ties to GlaxoSmithKline or other drug companies (click on the chart to enlarge)…
“When an episode on bipolar disorder first aired on September 20, 2005, Dr. Goodwin was once again on the road for the Glaxo. Glaxo’s records show that the company paid him, $2,500 for a talk he gave that day on drug therapy for bipolar disorder. The talk was at Lemonia, a Tuscan restaurant located at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Florida…
“I don’t think it takes a journalism or ethics professor to figure out that listeners of a national radio show should be told about the host’s financial interests. It just seems obvious. This type of information should be out in the open and transparent. People should know that since 2000, GlaxoSmithKline has paid the host of a radio program on psychiatry over $1.2 million in speaking fees and over $100,000 in expenses…
“People should know that, based on information from Glaxo, most of these fees were paid to Dr. Goodwin through Best Practice, a pharmaceutical consulting firm that he helped establish in the late ’90’s. Among the many services that have been offered by Best Practice are marketing consultation, and the ‘dissemination of new off-label information….’
Grassley also skewered NPR, noting that “The Infinite Mind, run on NPR’s satellite station: “According to NPR’s own policies, and I quote, ‘confidence in us as independent and fair means avoiding actual and apparent conflicts of interest or engaging in outside activities, public comment or writing that calls into question our ability to report fairly on a subject.’ The policy also states that an individual covered under this code ‘has the responsibility to disclose potential conflicts of interest.’ ”
Check out the Congressional Record (type in ‘Goodwin’ in the box)