Conflict Of Interest O-Rama, The Zyprexa Documents And A Blogging Note

First, I am having a bear of a time posting today. Juggling too much other reportorial work on the one hand--my phone has literally rung a dozen times this morning and that's good--and trying to find something intelligent to say about the mental health world on the other. So, instead of me scrambling to say something smart, I'll link to other smart folks.

The New York Times has an excellent article today on just how much money Big Pharma is giving to doctors in Minnesota, some of whom are influential researchers. It's lots and some of it is going to psychiatrists. A sales rep goes on the record admitting that this money is essentially buying off docs and creating markets for drugs that otherwise wouldn't exist. The paper's reporting is based on reports that have to be filed with the State under a unique law. All states should have this law. Because transparency is a good thing for the public. Much credit to the Times for staying on these issues. Much shame to the rest of the media for being lazy reporters on these issues.

AHRP has an excellent post up about some legal analysis of the Zyprexa documents ruling last month, which, among many other effects, effectively muzzled AHRP on some of the issues around Zyprexa and has prevented the group from linking to this here blog because I have the documents on my site. The basic legal analysis is that Judge Jack Weinstein's seal on some of these documents was stupid to begin with since they were hardly trade secrets. And so on. Read it here.

On Monday night, my good pals at Johnson & Johnson hosted a blogger summit on pharma blogging in NYC. Although the idea of a pharma company hosting a blogging event strikes me as bizarre, they had the good sense to invite Ed Silverman of Pharmalot (one the best blog names going and a damn good blog). BrandweekNRX has an account of the affair.

I was not invited. Neither was CL Psych who has a hilarious parody of a hypothetical pharma blog. Some might say that was because I am too much the critic or would have insisted that the J&J executives look at my drivers license pic, taken mere days after I had a bad reaction to Risperdal (their product) and Lexapro (Andrew Solomon's daddy's product). But, no. I think it was because the event featured an open bar and much wine was consumed. And, well, let's just say the pharma folks would have seen their profit margins collapse if I had been able to go through said wine list. French wine and I are an expensive combination.

The event also featured a blog consultant. Oh, my. Glad to see someone is making money off the blogosphere's back.