Consider then what must be the foulness of the air of hell. Imagine some foul and putrid corpse that has lain rotting and decomposing in the grave, a jelly-like mass of liquid corruption. Imagine such a corpse a prey to flames, devoured by the fire of burning brimstone and giving off dense choking fumes of nauseous loathsome decomposition. And then imagine this sickening stench, multiplied a millionfold and a millionfold again from the millions upon millions of fetid carcasses massed together in the reeking darkness, a huge and rotting human fungus. Imagine all this, and you will have some idea of the horror of the stench of hell.

Here we begin to approach the stench emanating from Harvard medical school, as its adored Joseph Biederman endures yet more exposure of his cruel greed.

Is UD’s language a tad nineteenth century? Well, it’s a Dickensian tale she has to tell… But she doesn’t like Dickens; she likes James Joyce, so she quotes him instead up there…

Here’s the background on Biederman. I don’t have the heart to revisit his history. But as sole proprietor of University Diaries (I get so much help! Both Barney and Bill sent me this latest New York Times article about Biederman; and also tonight I’ve gotten great links to other university-related articles from my beloved ‘thesdan playmate David … I couldn’t do UD without my readers, and I’m very, very grateful to you.) it’s my responsibility to keep tabs on the jelly-like mass that is Professor Biederman.

So, you know, here’s the latest, and it’s really gross.

When a Congressional investigation revealed in June that he had earned far more money from drug makers than he had reported to his university, Dr. Joseph Biederman, a world-renowned child psychiatrist, said that his “interests are solely in the advancement of medical treatment through rigorous and objective study.”

But e-mails and internal documents from Johnson & Johnson made public in a court filing reveal that Dr. Biederman pushed the company to fund a research center at Massachusetts General Hospital whose goal was “to move forward the commercial goals of J&J,” the documents state. The documents also show that Johnson & Johnson wrote a draft summary of a study that Dr. Biederman, of Harvard University, was said to author. [Well, that's agreeably straightforward. Give me a big grant at Harvard University, pristine and prestigious non-profit, so I can push your pills. And you want to put my name and Harvard's reputation on one of your internal documents? Where do I sign?]

Dr. Biederman’s work helped to fuel a 40-fold increase from 1994 to 2003 in the diagnosis of pediatric bipolar disorder and a rapid rise in the use of powerful, risky and expensive antipsychotic medicines in children. Although many of his studies are small and often financed by drug makers, Dr. Biederman has had a vast influence on the field largely because of his position at one of the most prestigious medical institutions in the world. [Take a bow, Harvard Med.]

Johnson & Johnson manufactures Risperdal, also known as risperidone, a popular antipsychotic medicine. More than a quarter of Risperdal’s use is in children and adolescents.

Last week, a panel of federal drug experts said that medicines like Risperdal are being used far too cavalierly in children and that federal drug regulators must do more to warn doctors of their substantial risks. Other popular antipsychotic medicines, also referred to as neuroleptics, are Zyprexa, made by Eli Lilly; Seroquel, made by AstraZeneca; Geodon, made by Pfizer; and Abilify, made by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Thousands of parents have sued Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly, claiming that their children were injured after taking the medicines, whose risks the companies minimized, the parents claim. As part of the suits, plaintiffs’ attorneys have demanded millions of documents from the companies. Nearly all of those documents have been provided under judicial seals, but a select few that mentioned Dr. Biederman became public after plaintiffs attorneys sought a judge’s order to require Dr. Biederman to be interviewed by plaintiff attorneys under oath. [Biederman's in all kinds of trouble -- legal, moral... But he remains as firmly clasped in Harvard's arms as Professor Hammond does in Cambridge's.]

In a motion filed two weeks ago, attorneys for the families argued that they should be allowed to interview Dr. Biederman under oath because his work has been crucial to the widespread acceptance of pediatric uses of antipsychotic medicines. To support this contention, the lawyers included more than two dozen documents, including e-mails from Johnson & Johnson that mentioned Dr. Biederman. That interview request has yet to be ruled upon.

But the documents are out there. Let’s take a look!

The documents offer an unusual glimpse into the delicate relationship that drug makers have with influential doctors. In one November 1999 e-mail, John Bruins, a Johnson & Johnson marketing executive, begs his supervisors to approve a $3,000 check to Dr. Biederman in payment for a lecture he gave at the University of Connecticut.

“Dr. Biederman is not someone to jerk around,” Mr. Bruins wrote. “He is a very proud national figure in child psych and has a very short fuse.”

Mr. Bruins wrote that Dr. Biederman was furious after Johnson & Johnson rejected a request that Dr. Biederman had made to receive a $280,000 research grant. “I have never seen someone so angry,” Mr. Bruins wrote. “Since that time, our business became non-existant (sic) within his area of control.” [The story doesn't need the trusted psychiatrist who specializes in self-control raging madly out of control. It doesn't need that crude a form of irony.  But this ain't fiction. We gotta go with the facts.]

Mr. Bruins concluded that, unless Dr. Biederman received a check soon, “I am truly afraid of the consequences.”

A series of documents described the goals behind establishing the Johnson & Johnson Center for the study of pediatric psychopathology, for which Dr. Biederman still serves as chief.

A 2002 annual report for the center stated that its research must satisfy three criteria: improve psychiatric care for children, have high standards and “move forward the commercial goals of J&J,” according to court documents.

“We strongly believe that the center’s systematic scientific inquiry will enhance the clinical and research foundation of child psychiatry and lead to the safer, more appropriate and more widespread use of medications in children,” the report stated. “Without such data, many clinicians question the wisdom of aggressively treating children with medications, especially those like neuroleptics, which expose children to potentially serious adverse events.” [The pills are really destructive, so to give them a patina of legitimacy, you need to associate them with Harvard. I'll take the money in denominations of fifties.]

A February 2002 e-mail from Georges Gharabawi, a Johnson & Johnson executive, stated that Dr. Biederman approached the company “multiple times to propose the creation” of the center. “The rationale of this center is to generate and disseminate data supporting the use of risperidone in” children and adolescents, the e-mail stated.

Johnson & Johnson gave the center $700,000 in 2002 alone, documents show.

A June 2002 e-mail from Dr. Gahan Pandina, a Johnson & Johnson executive, to Dr. Biederman included a brief abstract of a study of Risperdal in children suffering disruptive behavior disorder. The study was intended to be presented at the 2002 annual meeting of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, the e-mail stated.

“We have generated a review abstract, but I must review this longer abstract before passing this along,” Dr. Pandina wrote. One problem with the study, Dr. Pandina wrote, is that the children given placebos and those given Risperdal both improved significantly, “so, if you could, please give some thought to how to handle this issue if it occurs.”

The draft abstract that Dr. Pandina included in the e-mail, however, stated that only the children given Risperdal improved, while those given placebos did not. Dr. Pandina asked Dr. Biederman to sign a form listing himself as author so the company could present the study to the conference, according to the e-mail.

“I will review this morning,” Dr. Biederman responded, according to the documents. “I will be happy to sign the forms if you could kindly send them to me.” The documents do not make clear whether Dr. Biederman approved the final summary of the brief abstract in similar form or asked to read the longer report on the study. [Come lie with me!]

Drug makers have long hired professional writers to compose scientific papers and then recruited well-known doctors to list themselves as authors. The practice, known as ghostwriting, has come under intense criticism recently, and medical societies, schools and journals have condemned it.

In June, a Congressional investigation revealed that Dr. Biederman had failed to report to Harvard at least $1.4 million in outside income from Johnson & Johnson and other makers of antipsychotic medicines.

In one example, Dr. Biederman reported no income from Johnson & Johnson for 2001 in a disclosure report filed with the university. When asked by Senator Charles E. Grassley, a Republican of Iowa, to check again, Dr. Biederman said he received $3,500. But Johnson & Johnson told Mr. Grassley that it paid Dr. Biederman $58,169 in 2001.

On Monday, David J. Cameron, a Harvard spokesman, said the university was still reviewing Mr. Grassley’s allegations against Dr. Biederman. He added that they had not seen the drug company documents in question and that the university is not directly involved in the child psychiatry center at Massachusetts General Hospital. [Harvard's waiting for Biederman to go to prison before coming up with a list of names for a proposed review committee to consider his future at the university.]

Calls to Dr. Biederman were not returned. Johnson & Johnson did not immediately comment or make executives available for comment.

************

Update: Crucial, heartbreaking background on the larger degeneracy of which Biederman is so important a part.