…[T]here’s no reason why the drug companies should get a free ride here. In fact, they bear responsibility for creating a streamlined system to–for all practical purpose–bribe doctors into endorsing their products. Why shouldn’t they be held responsible? The drug company holds the power in this relationship and is the party responsible for initiating it. Surely, then, the drug company should be responsible for reporting this relationship and making sure that it is carried out in an ethical manner… if that’s even possible.
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…[T]his arrogant academic bully has finally been caught. He (with help from his cronies, who I hope are next on the list) has run his area of psychiatry like a mafia drug lord. His 850 publications include many in which he had absolutely no role but being the chair of the department. Stories of his interactions with students, colleagues, and training fellows that I have heard over the years have always been laced with instances of bullying, arrogance, and sexism. Simply put, he has been an enormous jerk whose influence over other people’s careers has been unchecked.
In an update to the Times article, I see that Emory has announced that Nemeroff has “voluntarily step[ped] down as chairman of the department, effective immediately, pending resolution of these issues.” My guess is that Emory will eventually receive some sort of sanction from this, and Nemeroff will have to leave the university for good.
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From Claudia Adkinson, Emory University dean, to Charles Nemeroff, Emory University professor of psychiatry, in a 2006 memo:
‘I have been grateful that the reporter was not sophisticated enough to ask all the right questions.’
Grateful. She was grateful. Ugh. Double ugh. Professor Nemeroff, you’ll recall, took vast sums of money to advocate the prescription of dangerous drugs to millions of people and hid this fact, even after several warnings. Dean Adkinson was grateful, let me repeat, that a reporter didn’t ask “all the right questions” to expose this…
October 6th, 2008 at 6:33AM
The Scientific Activist is full of it. You mean that the drug companies are forcing people to take bribes? Actually putting a gun to their heads and saying,"Listen Professor, put that $10K in your pocket and enjoy our Caribbean research conference, or we’ll shoot your dog"?
Rubbish.