Healthy Skepticism Library item: 18553

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: Electronic Source

Silverman E
A Senate Investigator & Pharma Nemesis Moves On
Pharmalot 2010 Aug 10
http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/08/a-senate-investigator-pharma-nemesis-moves-on/

Full text:

Pharma lobbyists on Capitol Hill and academics at major universities may be rejoicing tonight at the news that Paul Thacker, an investigator for US Senator Chuck Grassley, is leaving to join the Project on Government Oversight, a non-profit watchdog, next month. No formal announcement was made, but his departure was disclosed in an email he distributed.
During his three-year tenure, the former US Army specialist played a central role in the numerous investigations that examined prescription-drug safety and the undisclosed financial conflicts of interest involving academic researchers who simultaneously receive federal grants while doing work for drugmakers. In the process, Thacker and his colleagues prompted the National Institutes of Health and various universities to begin altering their policies on conflicts of interest (look here).
And while his actions helped transform Grassley into one of the most unpopular politicians in the pharmaceutical industry, drugmakers are now gradually posting on their web sites a variety of info – notably, payments to doctors – in advance of a new federal law that Grassley pushed as part of health care reform and which goes into effect in two years (see this and this example). Thacker enjoyed his job because “you can have an impact,” he told Nature last year. “I wanted to do something that, when it hits, it reverberates for a while.”
His better-known efforts included an investigation into GlaxoSmithKline’s Avandia diabetes pill and the allegations that the drugmaker failed to disclose certain data (look here), FDA staffers were battling over the drug (see here) and attempted to intimidate various academic researchers who expressed concerns about the medication (see this and this). He was also behind the probe into Charles Nemeroff, a high-profile academic psychiatrist who, while at Emory University, failed to disclose his ties to Glaxo while receiving grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (see here, here and here).
Although a behind-the-scenes player, Thacker once became a source of controversy himself last year when officials at Tufts University refused to allow other administrators to be panelists at a conference on conflicts of interest in medicine and research after learning that Thacker was to give the keynote speech. They were uncomfortable because Grassley was investigating ties between a Tufts professor and drugmakers, although ironically, Nemeroff spoke at the university some months later (see here).