fallen angel… »
« suspicious minds…
round three…

Posted on Friday 17 December 2010

Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time…

In response to your third letter, and after additional reviews of the numerous documents in our possession, the Project On Government Oversight will not be altering its November 29, 2010, revised letter to National Institutes of Health or blog entry, or issuing an apology. After a review of the February 25, 1997, “PRELIMINARY DRAFT” and of the 1999 published version of the handbook, POGO feels strongly that its statements regarding Scientific Therapeutics Information, Inc.’s development of the physician handbook titled Recognition and Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders: A Psychopharmacology Handbook for Primary Care are accurate and supported by the evidence…

If you have any records showing that Dr. Nemeroff or Dr. Schatzberg authored “PRELIMINARY DRAFT” or that the timeline was amended to prohibit GSK’s involvement in the handbook, I’d be pleased to consider them and take any subsequent measures that POGO deems appropriate.

Finally, your recent letters appear to be on the behest of GSK’s due to your concerns about GSK’s involvement in the publication of the handbook. Due to potential conflicts of interest involving the publication of the handbook that exist between your clients, GSK, and STI, any future correspondence from POGO to you will cease until I receive a signed affidavit from you stating that you are not representing GSK or STI.
A smart lawyer, that Scott Amey representing POGO. It is hardly to either Schatzberg’s or Nemeroff’s advantage to push this line of thinking. There’s enough STI/GSK stuff to put them at risk in a courtroom. On the other hand, there is still an army of people out there who took Paxil and had something adverse happen as it’s a pretty toxic drug. The allegations in the POGO letter are potential exhibits in a sea of suits yet filed – maybe against STI – maybe even against Nemeroff and Schatzberg. In a deposition filed in a California suit that settled out of court, the expert testifying [who seemed to have access to the records of the FDA’s initial approval] claimed that GSK knew of the many toxic side effects of the drug, but supressed that information during the approval process. Likewise, the Glenmullen Report released from a case by Senator Grassley alleges that the FDA  submission was falsified. So Amey’s suspicions that STI/GSK have a big interest in all of this legalistic haranging seems well founded.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.