Re: Ovarian Cancer Payola Scandal
From: Efrain Ramirez (eramirezt@coqui.net)
Tue May 18 20:47:19 2004
Is that news?
>>At Tue, 18 May 2004, art fougner, md wrote:
>
>This from Newsday and the LA Times.
>
>art
>
>FDA Chief Launches Internal Inquiry of Payments
>Deals in which medical firms paid government scientists prompt 'outside
>activity' review.
>
>By David Willman
>Times Staff Writer
>
>May 18, 2004
>
>WASHINGTON — The acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration
>has ordered an agencywide inquiry to determine the extent of biomedical
>company payments to officials at the regulatory agency, it was learned
>Monday.
>
>The inquiry was launched this month as congressional investigators began
>examining millions of dollars in industry payments — previously blocked
>from public view — to scientists at the National Institutes of Health.
>
>The newly uncovered deals include consulting payments made to two
>officials — one at the National Cancer Institute, a unit of the NIH, and
>another at the FDA. Both arrangements were terminated in recent days,
>officials said.
>
>After being assigned in 2002 to collaborate with a Maryland company in
>the development of an ovarian cancer test, the two officials entered
>into paid consulting deals with a Northern California firm that was a
>possible competitor, according to documents and individuals familiar
>with the matter.
>
>The director of the NIH, Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, said through a
>spokesman late Monday that he would not stand behind one of the
>arrangements, involving the chief of the National Cancer Institute's
>pathology laboratory. The matter "demonstrates the need for systemic
>reform," Zerhouni said through the spokesman, John Burklow.
>
>The consulting arrangement between the laboratory chief, Dr. Lance A.
>Liotta, and Biospect Inc. of South San Francisco ended Friday,
>officials said.
>
>The second of the now-terminated deals involved a senior microbiologist
>at the FDA, Emanuel F. Petricoin, prompting the investigators to
>determine whether other employees could maintain similar arrangements
>with the industry they help regulate. The inquiry is continuing, FDA
>spokesman Lawrence Bachorik said.
>
>"In light of recent questions about possible conflicts of interest
>involving [Department of Health and Human Services] agencies, acting FDA
>Commissioner Dr. Lester Crawford has directed a comprehensive review of
>all current outside activity requests from all FDA employees," Bachorik
>said.
>
>The circumstances surrounding Liotta's and Petricoin's activities for
>both companies are expected to be explored today at a hearing of the
>House Energy and Commerce oversight and investigations subcommittee.
>
>A Los Angeles Times report in December prompted the panel to request the
>records of payments from drug companies to NIH scientists. The article
>documented hundreds of payments, totaling millions of dollars, and
>reported that more than 94% of the agency's top-paid employees were not
>required to publicly disclose outside income.
>
>In late 2002, Liotta and Petricoin were given permission by their
>employers to consult for pay with Biospect, according to federal
>documents and interviews. Liotta received $39,000 through 2003, records
>from the NIH show. Payments to Petricoin were not publicly available
>Monday. Liotta and Petricoin declined via e-mail to comment for this
>article.
>
>The company payments had been shielded from public view because each
>official is exempted from reporting outside income on forms accessible
>under the Freedom of Information Act.
>
>Burklow, the NIH spokesman, acknowledged that officials had become aware
>that Biospect was a possible competitor with Correlogic Systems, the
>Maryland company with which Liotta and Petricoin were collaborating. The
>cofounder of Correlogic Systems, Peter J. Levine, said he hoped to
>advance the progress of his company's cooperative research pact with the
>government.
>
>That relationship "can be very important in furthering our ovarian
>cancer research — and ultimately saving lives," Levine said. The FDA,
>the National Cancer Institute and Correlogic Systems started working
>together in April 2002.
>
>Documents from the NIH show that as of last year, ethics officials had
>concluded that Liotta's outside consulting work with Biospect was
>unrelated to the official work he was assigned to perform on the NIH's
>behalf with Correlogic Systems.
>
>At the FDA, spokesman Bachorik said that officials "subsequently
>determined that Biospect participates in activities that are
>significantly regulated by the FDA. As a result, consulting with
>Biospect is a prohibited outside activity."
>
>Biospect announced Monday that it had changed its name to Predicant
>Biosciences. The company's chief executive, Deborah J. Neff, did not
>return a call seeking comment.
>
>*
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Times researcher Janet Lundblad in Los Angeles contributed to this
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>report.
>
>--
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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>http://www.newsday.com/news/health/la-na-nih18may18,0,1257969,print.story?coll=ny-health-headlines
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>--
>art fougner, md
>ich bin ein New Yorker
>
--
"The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement.
But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth."
Niels Bohr (1885 - 1962)
