How to Cover Up Research Abuse and Intimidate Critics. By Carl Elliott

Imagine that you lose your only son to suicide in a medical experiment. When you try to get his study records, the university refuses. When you file suit, the university argues successfully in court that it is "immune." Then it retaliates by filing a legal action against you, demanding that you pay the university $57,000 in legal costs. When you try to deliver a letter of complaint to the university president, his staff calls security guards and has you escorted out of the building. Believe it or not, these are the actions taken by the University of Minnesota, where I teach medical ethics, against Mary Weiss, a 70-year-old retired postal worker from St. Paul. The basic facts of the case were first reported in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. In late 2003, a psychiatric research team led by Dr. Stephen Olson, the head of the Schizophrenia Program at the University of Minnesota, used the threat of involuntary commitment to coerce Mary's mentally ill son, Dan Markingson, into a profitable, AstraZeneca-funded drug study -- the so-called CAFÉ study. Dan was signed up for the CAFÉ study over the objections of his mother, and despite the fact that he had been repeatedly judged mentally incompetent to make his own medical decisions. For months, Mary tried desperately to get Dan out of the study, warning that he was danger of committing suicide, but her warnings were ignored. On April 23, 2004, she left a voice message with the study coordinator, asking, "Do we have to wait for him to...
Source: PharmaGossip - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs