As reported here. Conflict of Interest? in a psychiatrist? say it isn't so. But he protests his innocence. Should we be cynical?
The San Jose Mercury News recently published a series of articles that examined the financial ties between universities and pharmaceutical companies. The series includes the results of a six-month Mercury News investigation into the research practices of the Stanford University School of Medicine. Summaries of the articles appear below.
*"Federal Rules Often Unenforced: Schools Are Left To Police Themselves": NIH rules require universities to monitor and report conflicts of interests, but the agency "does little to enforce those rules," the Mercury News reports.
NIH does not "maintain reliable statistics on the number of conflicts reported by universities that receive its grants" and "does not routinely ask schools to explain how they resolve the financial conflicts they do report," according to the Mercury News. NIH officials maintain that the agency does not have the ability to monitor the thousands of universities and not-for-profit organizations that receive federal research grants (Jacobs [1], San Jose Mercury News, 7/9).
* "How Profits, Research Mix at Stanford": Financial Ties researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the pharmaceutical industry have "enriched the school and fattened the personal bank account of many of its prestigious faculty members," the Mercury News reports.
According to the Mercury News, during the 2004-2005 academic year, the medical school received $38 million in royalties for research discoveries. Philip Pizzo, dean of the medical school, said that funds from the pharmaceutical industry are necessary to finance research into new treatments for patients, adding that the school has the "most rigorous" conflict-of-interest rules in the nation (Jacobs [2], San Jose Mercury News, 7/9).
* "Science Critics Make Issue of Financial Ties": The article profiles Stanford University psychiatrist Alan Schatzberg, who has conducted research into the use of mifepristone as a treatment for depression.
According to the Mercury News, some scientists have criticized the research because Schatzberg co-founded Corcept Therapeutics, a publicly traded company that seeks to market mifepristone as a treatment for depression. Schatzberg said he has complied with conflict-of-interest rules, adding, "We're trying to do something to help very badly ill patients, and if it's successful, the field will be advanced" (Jacobs [1], San Jose Mercury News, 7/10). In addition, the Mercury News published an interview with Schatzberg (Jacobs, San Jose Mercury News, 7/10).
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