Go on… talk to me

Why not?

Why not just leave a comment and explain things to me - tell me how I’m wrong about you and your products, about you and the way you market them, about you and the way you harm people, about you and the data you kept hidden, about you and the regulators, about you and your lies.

Talk to me - I want to hear your side of the story - I really do.

Surely someone from my “visitors’ book” has something to say worth saying [except the Scientologists]:

Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, Illinois

Abbott Laboratories, Gurnee, Illinois

Abbott Laboratories, Libertyville, Illinois

Accenture, United Kingdom

Adpepper.com

Allegiance Healthcare, Waukegan, Illinois

American Red Cross, National Headquarters, Washington

American Society of Clinical Oncology, Alexandria, Virginia

Amgen, Thousand Oaks, California

Anapharm, Quebec, Canada

Ashurst Morris Crisp, Edmonton, United Kingdom

Astra AB, Södertälje, Sweden

Astra Zeneca, Montchanin, Delaware

Avalanche Strategic Communications, Hackensack, New Jersey

Aventis Pasteur, Maidenhead, Windsor

Aventis Pharamceuticals, New Jersey

AXA Ireland

Bausch & Lomb, Rochester, New York

Bear Stearns Security Corporation, New York

Bayer Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Biogen, West Roxbury, Massachusetts

Bircham Dyson Bell, London, London

BMG Avocats, Genève, Geneve

Boehringer Ingelheim Limited, Egham, Slough

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Danbury, Connecticut

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Redding, Connecticut

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Ridgefield, Connecticut

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Copenhagen

BKD LLP, Springfield, Missouri

Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah

Bristol Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute, Monmouth Junction, New Jersey

Bristol Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute, Plainsboro, New Jersey

Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island

Burson - Marsteller BVBA, Brussels

Burson Marsteller, New York

Burson Marsteller (SEA) Pte Ltd, Singapore

California State University, Northridge

Capital One Financial, Richmond, Virginia

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

Church of Scientology International, Los Angeles, California

Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio

CMP Media LLC, Great Neck, New York

Collective Intellect, Boulder, Colorado

Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, New York

Commission Europeenne, Wezembeek-Oppem, Brabant

Corbett Healthconnect, Chicago, Illinois

Cornerstone Partners, New York

Cypress Bioscience, San Diego, California

Debevoise & Plimpton,

DOIM, Laurel, Maryland

Edelman PR, Alexandria, Virginia

Edelman, London

Edelman PR, New York

Edelman PR, Seattle, Washington

E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., Wilmington, Delaware

Eli Lilly and Company, Europe

Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, Indiana

Elron Technologies, Israel

Elsevier Science Limited, Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire

Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

European Parliament, Brussels

Evergreen Medical Group, Kirkland, Washington

Experian Information Solutions, Roswell, Georgia

FDA, Parklawn Computer Center / DIMES HQ, Silver Spring, Maryland

Parklawn Computer Center / DIMES HQ, Rockville, Maryland

Finkelstein, Thompson & Loughran, Washington, District of Columbia

Fisher & Paykel Ltd., Northmead, New South Wales

Foote, Cone & Belding , New York

Forest Labs, New Hyde Park, New York

Genentech, Dixon, California

Genentech, San Francisco, California

General Motors Corporation, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

Gerson Lehrman Group, Austin, Texas

Gilead Sciences, Boulder, Colorado

Glaxo., King Of Prussia, Pennsylvania

Glaxo, Raleigh, North Carolina

GlaxoSmithkline, Mississauga, Ontario

Glaxosmithkline S.p.A, Verona, Veneto

Group Health Cooperative, Seattle, Washington

Haymarket Media, Garfield, New Jersey

Health and Welfare Agency Data Center, Clarksburg, California

Hearst Corporation, New York

Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Amman, Jordan

Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London

Internal Revenue Service, Highland, Maryland

James, Houer, Newcome & Smiljanich, Birmingham, New Jersey

Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, Cleveland, Ohio

The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland

Josef Nopp KG, Leonding, Oberosterreich, Austria

Johnson & Johnson, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Johnson & Johnson, New Jersey

Johnson & Johnson, Europe

JP Morgan Chase & Co, Columbus, Ohio

JP Morgan Chase & Co, New York

Kaiser Permanente, El Cerrito, California

Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, Los Angeles, California

Kendle, Glasgow, Scotland

King & Spalding, Washington DC

Life Science Communications, Upper Holloway, Redbridge

LNS Communications, Brookline, Massachusetts

Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles

Management Centre Europe, Brussels

Mayo Foundation, Rochester, Minnesota,

McCarter & English, Newark, New Jersey

Marcus Evans, Chicago, Illinois

McCann-Erickson GuangMing Lt, Hong Kong

McCann-Erickson, London

McCann-Erickson, New York

McCann-Erickson/Torre Lazur, Denville, New Jersey

MDE Investors, Washington, DC

Medical Broadcasting Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Meditech Media, London

Medstat Systems, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Merck and Co., Montgomeryville, Pennsylvania

Merck and Co., Skillman, New Jersey,

Meta Pharmaceutical Services LLC, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania

Microsoft Corp, United States

MORI, London

Morgen Walke Associates, Brooklyn, New York

Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York

National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland

Neuronetics, Malvern, Philadelphia

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, Columbia, South Carolina

News Corporation, New York

Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois

Novartis AG, Europe

Novo Nordisk Pharmaceutical, Princeton, New Jersey

Organon Pharmacy, Roseland, New Jersey

Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Gaithersburg, Maryland

Performance Systems International, Toronto, Ontario

Pepper, Hamilton and Sheetz, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pfizer, Australia

Pfizer, New York

Pfizer, Quaker Hill, Connecticut

Pfizer, United Kingdom

Phillips Lytle LLP, Buffalo, New York

Porter Novelli, New York

PricewaterhouseCoopers GTS UK, London

Publicis & Hal Riney, El Cerrito, California

Quintiles, Raleigh, North Carolina

Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society, Rockville, Maryland

Research Triangle Institute, Durham, North Carolina

R G C Jenkins & Co, London

R I S Christie, Toronto, Ontario

Rosen & Livingston, Brooklyn, New York

Ruder Finn, London

Sankyo Pharma, Parsippany, New Jersey

Sanofi Synthelab(s) PTE LTD, Singapore

Sanofi Techniques, Bourg-la-Reine

Schering-Plough Corporation, Plainfield, New Jersey

Scientific American, New York

Semyung University, Chungbuk, Kyongsang-bukto, Korea

Shire US, Wayne, Pennsylvania

Shock Hardy & Bacon, Overland Park, Kansas,

Smith Hanley, Indianapolis, Indiana

SmithKline Beecham, Ickenham, Slough, United Kingdom

SmithKline Beecham, North Weald, Havering, United Kingdom

St. John Medical Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma

St Josephs Health System, Anaheim, California

State of CA, Dept. of Consumer Affairs (DCA), Sacramento, California

Steptoe & Johnson, London

Steptoe & Johnson, Washington, District of Columbia

Syntex USA, Livingston, New Jersey

Syntex USA, Switzerland

Syracuse Research Corporation, Syracuse, New York

Takeda Pharmaceuticals A, Chicago, Illinois,

Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Lincolnshire, Illinois

Takeda UK Ltd, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, Texas

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Newington, Virginia

The McGinn Group, Fredericktown, Ohio

The Nielsen Company, New York

The Procter and Gamble Company, Cincinnati, Ohio

The United States Centers For Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia

Trinity Mirror Group, London

TRW Space and Defense Sector, Torrance, California

Ulmer Berne, United States

University of California, Irvine, Irvine

University of Manchester, Manchester, England

University of Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire

University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom

University of Westminster, London

USA TODAY, McLean, Virginia

U.S. Dept. of Commerce - ITA, Cheltenham, Maryland

U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Washington, District of Columbia

U.S. Department of State, Arlington, Virginia

U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms, Arlington, Virginia

VJIL Consulting, Hyderabad, India

Waggener Edstrom, Portland, Oregon

Walgreens, Arlington Heights, Illinois

Warner-Lambert Company, Morris Plains, New Jersey

Wiley, Rein & Fielding, Washington, District of Columbia

WPP Group, New York

WPP Group U.S. Investments, Miami, Florida

Wyeth-Ayerst Research, Horsham, Pennsylvania

Wyeth-Ayerst Research, Waldwick, New Jersey

Young & Rubicam-Media Edge, San Francisco, California

What about you guys at Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide in New York? Who’s your client? What do they want to say?

Dr Greg Simon and his latest study

I just saw a post at Furious Seasons, about a new study - or rather about the press release for a new study as we haven’t been allowed to see the paper as yet:

“Turns out that getting treatment–meds, psychotherapy or both–works to eliminate suicide attempts soon after a patient begins treatment. Culled from 100,000 or so patient records by Seattle’s own Group Health Cooperative, the resultant paper is not yet available on the APA’s website. But in a press release, GHC’s Greg Simon notes… the study sheds new light on the “black box” advisory that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) placed in 2004 and has revised since then, said Greg Simon, MD, MPH, the Group Health psychiatrist who led the study. The advisory—which has concerned many patients, families, and care providers—warns that suicidal behavior may emerge soon after people younger than 25 start treatment with newer antidepressant medications called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)….“

Gerg Simon - that name rang a bell.

Now, let me see - Greg had produced another study in 2006 - its conclusions ran very much along the same lines .

This from Social Audit:

The Am J Psych decided that: “reconsideration of the FDA warning seems warranted”. This was on the basis of a major, NIH-funded, epidemiological study, published in the same issue that concluded, “Available data do not indicate a significant increase in risk of suicide or serious suicide attempt after starting treatment with newer antidepressant drugs”. Much publicity followed: “Antidepressants Seem to Cut Suicide Risk in Teenagers and Adults, Study says”, according to the New York Times.

After examining thousands of records in a Seattle-based, “consumer-governed”, non-profit health plan, the researchers reported that “suicide attempts decreased by over 60% in the first month of treatment”. As suicide attempts typically bring people into contact with doctors who then usually prescribe an antidepressant drug, this study just quantified the obvious: levels of suicidal behaviour tend to fall when people get help.

However, I think that you really need to read the whole exchange between Charles Medawar of Social Audit and Dr Greg Simon - I think you’ll get more of an idea of what Greg’s particular angle is…

This may also help as well - one of the study’s co-authors was Philip S Wang…

Can this be the same Philip S Wang that The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had been urged to remove from one of its advisory boards evaluating the link between serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and suicide in youths because he had been a paid consultant for one of the companies that make the drugs under investigation?

Or the same Philip S Wang who served as an expert witness for Glaxo in a wrongful death suit involving Paxil.

Or the same Philip S Wang who appeared for Aventis in the case of Vera Easter verses Aventis Pasteur? Although Harvard-educated and the author of some 80 peer-reviewed articles, according to his deposition, Dr Philip Wang’s specialty was epidemiology related to antidepressants. Prior to being retained as an expert for the vaccine makers, Dr Wang had not done any evaluations associated with vaccines, had no specific training whatsoever regarding mercury, and had written no articles on the effects of heavy metal exposure.

Dr Wang has never investigated any illness claimed to be associated with heavy metal exposure and has never been asked to do a formal epidemiologic evaluation of the hypothesis that the thimerosal could cause neurological disorders or autism.

Dr Wang’s knowledge of vaccines and thimerosal was limited to what he learned in 30 to 35 hours of meetings with defense attorneys and reading the relevant medical literature, most of which was provided by the defense attorneys.

Or the same Philip S Wang who received $1.2 million from Kaiser Permanente, via the National Institute of Mental Health, to research Outreach and Treatment for Depression in the Labor Force. This project will involve an effectiveness trial to evaluate the impact of depression outreach-treatment of work-related behaviors.

I think I should point out that the National Institute of Mental Health funded the new study, whose other author is James Savarino - the same James Savarino who co-authored the earlier study with Dr Simon and Dr Wang.

The National Institute for Mental Health has a long and proud history of working closely with the drug industry.