Shelley was instrumental in exposing GlaxoSmithKline and the MHRA plus fraudulant psychiatrists with her reports concerning Seroxat.
The first documentary, 'The Secrets of Seroxat' was aired in 2002 and saw 65,000 people ring the BBC helpline and they received over 1,500 emails. This prompted Shelley to make a follow-up programme called 'Emails from the Edge', which was broadcast on BBC TV on the 11th May 2003. 'Taken on Trust', her third investigation in to Seroxat, shook the foundations of the MHRA to the core as she exposed how they had failed the British public regarding thier ignorance and incompetence. Her fourth and final installment [thus far] of the whole Seroxat scandal was called 'Secrets of the Drug Trials', she showed how GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) attempted to show that Seroxat worked for depressed children despite failed clinical trials. This was aired in 2007.
On November the 1st, 2007, Shelley shed further light on her investigations into Seroxat when she was interviewed at Coventry University as part of the 'Coventry Conversations' series. The interview is available for download and is over an hour in length.
The interview with Shelley is a pretty amazing insight into how GlaxoSmithKline saw her as a major nuisance as she kept chipping away at them, digging for answers.
Shelley Jofre is a terrific reporter, a constant thorn in the side of GlaxoSmithKline and the MHRA. If there were any justice in this world then Shelley should recieve all the accolades. She put the dangers of Seroxat on the map here in the UK, she exposed the clandestine goings-on at the world's second largest pharmaceutical company and the body that regulate them, the MHRA.
A key point in these four documentaries was when she asked Head of European Psychiatry , for GlaxoSmithKline, Alistair Benbow, if Seroxat could be safe in children. His reply still baffles me to this day, he answered, "Absolutely. It could be. We haven't got a license in children yet..."
Quite why Benbow would suggest that Seroxat could be safe in children and would suggest that they hadn't got a license in children 'yet', is quite revealing. His company, GlaxoSmithKline, had documents from 1998 that showed that medication for adolescent depression failed to demonstrate any benefit for paroxetine over placebo in adolescents and demonstrated a worrying profile of adverse events for paroxetine.
I think it is fair to assume that Benbow was either lying or he didn't know that his company knew Seroxat was not beneficial to children, in fact it was quite the reverse. If the latter is true then Benbow as Head of European Psychiatry , at GlaxoSmithKline should ask himself why his employers never told him.
I got myself in to hot water when I created a video with comments from Benbow and juxtaposed them with comments from patients and the mainstream media. Apparently I had caused Benbow distress. Surely, as a consumer of their product, Seroxat, I had every right to question Benbow? Glaxo's lawyers were not happy with a comment I made regarding Benbow, I likened him to a Nazi dictator. In hindsight that was wrong, however, the question of whether Benbow lied on national TV has still not been answered.
Here is the interview with Shelley. It was conducted by John Mair and recorded in front of an audience at Coventry University.
It is an audio recording and not a video.
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Read the new book, The Evidence, However, Is Clear...The Seroxat Scandal
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'THE EVIDENCE, HOWEVER, IS CLEAR...THE SEROXAT SCANDAL' By Bob Fiddaman
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