Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17464
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
Rubenstein S
What Did Emory Tell NIH About Nemeroff’s Pharma Pay?
The Wall Street Journal Blog 2009 Feb 26
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/02/26/what-did-emory-tell-nih-about-nemeroffs-pharma-pay/tab/print/
Full text:
Emory University continues to feel the heat over Sen. Charles Grassley’s investigation into conflicts of interest among doctors: The federal government is investigating whether Emory misled the National Institutes of Health over payments that prominent psychiatrist Charles Nemeroff received from GlaxoSmithKline, the WSJ reports.
Nemeroff stepped down from the chairmanship of Emory’s psychiatry department, but remains a professor there, amid allegations that he failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments from Glaxo, maker of antidepressant Paxil.
A probe by the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services is looking into whether Emory failed to tell the NIH about Nemeroff’s potential conflicts, or misrepresented the kind of work he did for Glaxo, as he served as lead investigator on NIH-funded research on five Glaxo drugs for use as antidepressants, WSJ says. The NIH last year suspended a $9.3 million grant to Emory amid Grassley’s probe.
Grassley has been encouraging the HHS inspector general to look into the matter to make sure “Emory did not, either directly or indirectly, mislead the NIH about the nature of Dr. Nemeroff’s promotional talks for GSK and advocacy on behalf of Paxil,” as he wrote (click the letter at right).
A spokeswoman for the inspector general wouldn’t comment on whether the office was investigating. Emory said it will continue to cooperate with NIH; NIH declined to comment. Nemeroff didn’t return the WSJ’s call but has said before he believes he complied with relevant disclosure requirements.
