Healthy Skepticism Library item: 15793
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
Armstrong D, Burton TM.
UCLA Surgeon Didn't Report Payments
The Wall Street Journal 2009 May 28
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124348007018961469.html
Full text:
A top spine surgeon at the University of California, Los Angeles failed to disclose payments from medical companies while he was researching their products’ use in patients, according to records obtained by congressional investigators.
Jeffrey Wang, chief of spine surgery at UCLA, didn’t inform the school of $459,500 he was paid by companies from 2004 through 2007, according to a May 21 letter from Sen. Charles Grassley to the school’s chancellor that was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
State university researchers in California are required to disclose any financial ties to nongovernmental entities funding their work. Failure to report a financial interest can result in civil liability, including fines, as well as university discipline.
UCLA and Dr. Wang declined to comment on the senator’s letter.
Mr. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and other lawmakers have accused a number of schools of doing a poor job of policing conflicts of interest among researchers. They said they are concerned doctors’ research and treatment decisions may be unduly influenced by payments from drug companies and medical-device makers.
Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont and West Virginia have enacted laws requiring medical companies to disclose payments to in-state doctors, with certain exceptions. A bill sponsored by Mr. Grassley and others would require national disclosure.
Among the companies that paid Dr. Wang were surgical-products makers Medtronic Inc., the DePuy unit of Johnson & Johnson and FzioMed Inc., Mr. Grassley said. The payments — which included royalties on products Dr. Wang helped develop, and speaking and consulting fees — weren’t disclosed to UCLA until Mr. Grassley asked to see the surgeon’s disclosure forms to the school, the senator said.
The three companies were sponsoring research by Dr. Wang at UCLA at the time of the payments, the forms show. J&J and FzioMed declined to comment. A Medtronic spokeswoman said, “Medtronic is not in a position to know whether Dr. Wang honored his respective employer’s conflict-of-interest requirements.” She added that his agreement has expired and has “not been renewed at this time.”
Mr. Grassley said Dr. Wang “consistently checked no” on the forms when asked whether he had received income of $500 or more from companies funding his clinical research. UCLA, the senator’s letter said, told him that Dr. Wang “erred in completing” the disclosures.
Dr. Wang serves on the board of the 5,000-member North American Spine Society, and on the editorial boards of several medical journals. UCLA said it paid him $775,000 last year, including $400,000 in salary and $375,000 for treating patients at its facilities.
In a disclosure form to UCLA dated Jan. 10, 2007, Dr. Wang checked “no” when asked if he received income of $500 or more from Medtronic. On Jan. 4, 2007, according to Mr. Grassley, Medtronic’s records show it paid Dr. Wang $14,600 for “lecture and teachings at spine meetings and universities in Korea for one week.” Medtronic was at the time funding Dr. Wang’s study of a company spinal-repair system, according to UCLA records.
In total, Medtronic paid Dr. Wang at least $186,700 from 2004 through 2007, the senator said.
