Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17415

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

J&J - Risperdal: 'Plant a Shill'.... anyone know who Randy is?
Pharma Gossip 2010 Mar 13
http://pharmagossip.blogspot.com/2010/03/j-risperdal-plant-shill-anyone-know-who.html

Full text:

To drive sales, Janssen paid doctors to speak at continuing medical education, or CME, programs about Risperdal, according to the documents. Janssenarmed them with slides touting its effectiveness, the documents show.

“Medical Services/Affairs has little input on speaker’s slides,” according to a January 2003 e-mail from Jeni Bastean, a Janssen executive. “The content of the Speakers Slide Kit is driven by marketing as they are promotional in nature.”

At a 2003 meeting, a Janssen executive praised the use of coached questioners at programs, according to a transcript. A doctor identified in the transcript as Randy told Janssen employees that he signed a letter agreeing he would only talk about permitted uses of Risperdal.

‘Plant a Shill’

“However, I always plant a shill because if I get asked a question from the audience, I can then speak off-label,” Randy said. “You never like to go to a CME meeting without knowing ahead of time that somebody is going to ask you, ‘what about dementia?’”

“That’s good practical advice,” replied Dr. Andrew Greenspan, an executive in Janssen’s medical affairs department, according to the transcript.

Big Pharma claims to be concerned about our health. However, it is interesting to note the results of the Orphan Drug Act. In the decade prior to 1983 only ten drugs and biological products for rare diseases and cancers were brought to the market by the pharmaceutical companies. Orphan or rare diseases includeBalo disease, mesothelioma, Ramsay Hunt syndrome, and muscular dystrophy. In the two decades since its enactment, over 200 drugs have been approved for conditions that the afflict fewer than 200,000 patients.
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