I don’t know Dr. Maurizio Fava or anything about him other than he’s at Mass General and his name in embeded in the author lists of STAR*D. So I’m using him as a straw man simply because of his conflict of interest declaration on the recent CO-MED publication. In the ProPublica Dollars for Docs Database, the recorded amount is trivial compared to some of his peers. So my comments are just about that list tabulated below. The companies that have been involved with the drugs in the CO-MED study are highlighted in red:
| Maurizio Fava, M.D. PubMed=345, ClinicalTrials=14 |
||
| research support
|
adviser or consultant
|
speaking or publishing fees
|
| Abbott Alkermes Aspect Medical Systems AstraZeneca BioResearch BrainCells Bristol-Myers Squibb CeNeRx BioPharma Cephalon Clinical Trials Solutions Clintara Covidien Eli Lilly EnVivo Euthymics Bioscience Forest Ganeden Biotech GlaxoSmithKline Icon Clinical Research i3 Innovus/Ingenix Johnson & Johnson Lichtwer Lorex NARSAD the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine the National Institute on Drug Abuse NIMH Novartis Organon Pamlab Pfizer Pharmavite Photothera RCT Logic Roche Sanofi-Aventis Shire Solvay Synthelabo Wyeth |
Abbott Affectis Alkermes Amarin Aspect Medical Systems AstraZeneca Auspex Bayer Best Practice Project Management BioMarin Biovail BrainCells Bristol-Myers Squibb CeNeRx BioPharma Cephalon Clinical Trials Solutions CNS Response Compellis Cypress DiagnoSearch Life Sciences Dinippon Sumitomo DOV Edgemont Eisai Eli Lilly ePharmaSolutions EPIX Euthymics Bioscience Fabre-Kramer Forest GenOmind GlaxoSmithKline Grunenthal i3 Innovus/Ingenix Janssen Jazz Johnson & Johnson Knoll Labopharm Lorex Lundbeck MedAvante Merck MSI Methylation Sciences Naurex Neuronetics NextWave Novartis Nutrition 21 Orexigen Organon Otsuka Pamlab Pfizer PharmaStar Pharmavite PharmoRx Precision Human Biolaboratory Prexa PsychoGenics Psylin Neurosciences Puretech Ventures RCT Logic Rexahn Ridge Diagnostics Roche Sanofi-Aventis Schering-Plough Sepracor Servier Solvay Somaxon Somerset Sunovion Synthelabo Takeda Tal Medical Tetragenex Transcept TransForm Vanda |
Adamed Advanced Meeting Partners the American Psychiatric Association the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology AstraZeneca Belvoir Media Group Boehringer Ingelheim Bristol-Myers Squibb Cephalon CME Institute/Physicians Postgraduate Press Eli Lilly Forest GlaxoSmithKline Imedex MGH Psychiatry Academy/Primedia MGH Psychiatry Academy/Reed Elsevier Novartis Organon Pfizer PharmaStar United BioSource Wyeth |
|
He owns stock in Compellis; he has a patent for SPCD; a patent application for a combination of azapirones and bupropion in major depressive disorder; and a patent for research and licensing of SPCD with RCT Logic and Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins; he receives copyright royalties for the MGH CPFQ, SFI, ATRQ, DESS, and SAFER. |
||
I can think of no way to justify allowing someone with this kind of conflict of interest declaration to be an author of a scientific paper, particularly a study with an array of drugs each still under patent whose manufacturing history is among his list of conflicts [Wellbutrin SR, Lexapro, Effexor XR, Remeron]. CO-MED was an NIMH funded study [Dr. Fava is P.I. on NIMH Grants worth $10.5 M since 2000]. He is one of fifteen authors listed on this study. In the PubMed Database, of the 345 articles with Dr. Fava listed as author, 72 mention STAR*D and 47 have STAR*D in the title.There are no articles where Dr. Fava is either a First Author or a Last Author.
He may not be as conflicted as his other co-authors with regard to income
http://projects.propublica.org/docdollars/search?term=Michael+Thase&state%5Bid%5D=
But it’s the company you keep that reflects…
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8792754?dopt=Abstract
Michael Thase… just an example