SocraticGadfly: Big Pharma buys Harvard Big Lies

June 08, 2008

Big Pharma buys Harvard Big Lies

Specifically, those are the lies of Harvard child psychiatrist Joseph Biederman, along with colleague Timothy Wilens.

The pair admitted each getting more than $1.6 million in Big Pharma consulting fees from 2000-2007; another Harvard prof, Thomas Spencer, admitted getting more than $1 million in that time.

Here’s an example of the lies Biederman had been telling in the past about Big Pharma payoffs:
In one example, Dr. Biederman reported no income from Johnson & Johnson for 2001 in a disclosure report filed with the university. When asked to check again, he said he received $3,500. But Johnson & Johnson told (Sen. Charles) Grassley that it paid him $58,169 in 2001, Grassley found.

Meanwhile, Biederman, after getting busted, had this laughable reply:
In an e-mailed statement, Dr. Biederman said, “My interests are solely in the advancement of medical treatment through rigorous and objective study,” and he said he took conflict-of-interest policies “very seriously.”

Wilens and Spencer said in their own e-mails they thought they had complied with conflict-of-interest rules.
Tenure or no tenure, Harvard ought to do everything they can do to fire the trio.

Obviously, Biederman’s shilling psychotropic drugs for juvenile use is HUGELY flawed; plus, it’s obvious he has violated federal and university research rules.

Beyond that, it’s even more obvious the trio violated basic scientific standards.

Death by forced IV overdose of Prozac would be about right.

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