The New York Times (The Times) yesterday published two articles on Harvard and their changes to conflict of interest policies. The first article is about a small group of 30 students who protested at Havard University Medical Center in the Fall of 2008. Apparently, a Pfizer employee took pictures of the rally from the causeway above the Quad where they were protesting to share with his friends (actually from a friend of mine who was at the rally, and knew the photographer, said it was cold, hardly anyone was there, everyone left early, and the few students that were there, had company logos all over their white coats and the picture he took, as stated by The Times was made for personal reasons to send to phone guy’s friends).
Reading T he Times on Tuesday, Senator Grassley was outraged by the young man taking a photograph. So much so that the Senator sent Jeff Kindler, the Chairman of Pfizer, a letter outlining that the Senator was “greatly disturbed,” “I find this troubling,” and “it raises concerns that Pfizer is attempting to intimidate young scholars from professing their independent views on issues that that think are critical to science, medicine, and the health and welfare of the American taxpayers.” This is perhaps one of the great giant leaps of all time, we should get the flag and stand behind those poor misguided medical students who want to end all ties with industry and stop all drug development, not like our friends in China would not love the work.
The true purpose for the letter, however, was stated clearly on the second page, that the Senator is interested in learning about payments made to Harvard faculty from Pfizer as outlined in the second Times Article posted yesterday. It references a Harvard report which outlines that 149 Harvard faculty members have financial ties to Pfizer and 130 to Merck.
The Senator sent his standard “please send me what you have” letter to Pfizer, on the 149 Harvard Faculty for the years 2007 and beyond. He has more than likely sent the same letter to Merck and Harvard, to extrapolate and see if any physicians or companies failed to report their full relationships.
The prompting of the articles in The Times is that Harvard Medical Schoolis in the midst of revising their Conflicts of Interest Policies, and has a 17 member committee working on those policies that will convene for the first time on Thursday March 5th. The American Medical Students’ Association, in coordination with The Times, wants to make certain that all the members of the committee feel the “heat” of Harvard getting an “F" on their self-defined scale on conflicts of interest.
The Harvard committee includes three students and is guided by David Korn, M.D., Vice Provost, former Dean at Stanford. David directed the American Association of Medical Colleges’ conflicts of interest statement released this past summer.
One of my favorite parts of the article is how The Times describes the four year-old group of anti-industry students and faculty (200) has grown into a “Full Blown Movement” yet another group started this past fall of 100 students and faculty calling for continued interaction between medicine and industry at Harvard Medical School as “a smaller rival faction.”Through all this, I cannot help from wondering – how is it that some poor Pfizer employee on his own time at the prompting of his friends taking a picture of a pathetic rally of over-zealous, anti-industry medical students (who in the very near future will be up to debt with no way out) rising to the level of a letter from Senator Grassley to the Chairman of the country’s largest pharmaceutical company.
This is an important question, especially at a time when the Ranking Majority Member of the Senate Finance Committee should be focused on slightly more important events.
Let’s think what might be a little more important. Perhaps, Senate Finance Committee – Economic melt-down.
Senator Grassley: Letter to Pfizer 3-03-09
New York Times:
Senator Asks Pfizer about Harvard Payments
Harvard Medical School in Ethics Quandary
Pfizer Worker Photographed Protestors at Harvard
Wall Street Journal Blog: Tallying Harvard Medical Schools Drug Industry Ties
Harvard Crimson: Students Push Comprehensive Hospital COI Policies
AMSA Med School Scorecard: Focuses on Electives