Kelly Posner Gerstenhaber - Incredulous!

 Kelly Posner Gerstenhaber

Dr. Kelly Posner Gerstenhaber is a visionary scientist, humanitarian, and philanthropist with a long-standing commitment to saving lives. Her focus on preventing death by suicide.

At least these are the claims of her bio found here.

For simplicity I will just refer to her as Posner.

Posner caused quite a stir earlier today when she was a guest on a radio show broadcast by WBUR.

She claimed that science shows prescription drugs 'Don't cause people to be suicidal.'

Posner, presumably from the area of Idontgiveadamn, which is situated on the planet Zog, obviously has some sort of delusions of grandeur, at least that's what her bio would suggest.

A humanitarian?

A long-standing commitment to saving lives?

What the program-makers, and, indeed, Posner, failed to mention was her ties to the industry. Back in 2009 Posner added her name to a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. (JAACAP)

The JAACAP is infamous for the ghostwritten Paxil 329 study and despite many calls for it's retraction the journal are steadfast in not removing the fraudulant 329 study.

In 2009 Posner listed her following interests after adding her name to the Depressive Symptoms and Clinical Status During the Treatment of Adolescent Suicide Attempters (TASA) Study.

Here we get to see the reasoning behind her claims on WBUR.

"Dr. Posner has received research support from the following pharmaceutical companies, as part of an effort to help execute the FDA suicidality mandates/requests: Amgen, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, Forest Laboratories, GlaxoSmithKline, i3 Research, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, H. Lundbeck A/S, Medtronic, Merck & Co., Next Wave Pharmaceuticals, Novo Nordisk A/S, Orexigen Therapeutics, Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, Schering-Plough Corporation, Schwarz Biosciences/UCB, Sepracor, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Vivus, and Wyeth Research."

Furthermore, the Columbia Lighthouse Project at Columbia University, of which Posner is the founder and director, receives funding from pharmaceutical companies. Again, this was not mentioned by the program-makers at WBUR or, indeed, Posner herself.

The interview is unbelievable, nae incredulous.

Give this a listen, the usual 'underlying illnesses' is rolled out.

She also claims that suicides have risen since black box warnings in the US, Another fallacy that has been debunked many times.

On anecdotal reports of people dying by antidepressant induced suicide she said, "the greatest risk of suicide is a month before starting treatment, what is causing the risk is the medication not having  chance to work yet." Posner also claimed that she worked alongside the FDA and stated that there was not one suicide reported.

Hmm, she's either lying or the FDA didn't feel that she was important enough to give that information to.

Strange because I was present at the recent trial in Chicago where Paxil was implicated in the death of Stewart Dolin. The  jury heard about the following suicides during Paxil clinical trials. All the subjects were taking Paxil at the time of their death. (See Plaintiff's Exhibit 347)

Female, 56 - Suicide.
Unknown gender - 50 - Suicide by hanging.
Female, 42 - Suicide by overdose of doxepin.
Female, 18 -  Suicide.
Female, 58 - Suicide by hanging.
Male, 24 - Unknown if it was suicide - Patient was hit by a train and killed
Male, 34 - Suicide
Female, 48 - Suicide
Female, 46 - Suicide by hanging.
Male, 54 - Suicide, jumped under a train.
Female, 67 - Suicide - on the fourth day of the study she threw herself out of a window.
Female, 32 - Suffocation due to vomiting.
Female, 33 - Suicide, jumped from 4th floor balcony.
Male, 65 - Suicide by an unknown method.
Male, 23 - Suicide.
Female, 31 - Suicide.
Unknown gender , 86 - Suicide by hanging.
Male, 46 - Suicide/Homicide - on December 14, 1998, the patient went to the home he shared with his estranged wife and shot her, he then turned the gun on himself.
Male, 40 - Suicide.
Male, 35 - Suicide (Shot himself)
Male, 19 - Suicide (Shot himself)
Female, 58 - Suicide by hanging.

80% of these suicides were carried out by patients over the age of 30. (Back story)

Plaintiff's Exhibit 347

This is gut-wrenching to listen to as I know, and have met, many parents, husbands and wives who have lost loved ones to antidepressant-induced suicide.

WBUR need to either add Posner's conflict of interests or invite parents onto their show to rebut the outlandish claims you are about to listen to.

PLAY

Feel free to leave a comment beneath this post or on the WBUR website here.


Bob Fiddaman

GSK ~ A Class Act

Courtesy of Google Images

I had one of those Nescafe down the nostrils moments earlier. Snot accompanied the Nescafe as it projected down my left nostril, much of it spraying the screen of my laptop.

GSK, it appears, have been implementing ethics into the way they give incentives to sales staff by rolling out new sales training, performance review and bonus structure.

In an interview with HR Magazine, GSK's Dannii Portsmouth, (Pictured top of post) said, “We don’t think we've done anything inappropriate in the past, but we think the expectations of society have changed.”

(Insert laughter here)

Portsmouth is GSK's Director, HR Business Lead, UK & Ireland Pharmaceuticals - to suggest that; a) the company who employ her have done nothing inappropriate in the past and b) it's down to the expectations of society, is classic GSK spin.

Here we have a company spokesperson trying to put right many wrongs but she fails at the first hurdle with a statement of denial. "We don’t think we've done anything inappropriate in the past."

Really?

So, why plead guilty then?

One word: Incredulous!

GLAXOSMITHKLINE SETTLEMENT FACT SHEET 

GSK has agreed to plead guilty and pay $3 billion as part of this criminal and civil resolution.

GSK has agreed to plead guilty to three misdemeanor violations of the Food, Drug and

Cosmetic Act:

Regarding Paxil, GSK will plead guilty to distribution of a misbranded drug due to false and misleading labeling, in violation of 21 U.S.C.

Regarding Wellbutrin, GSK will plead guilty to distribution of a misbranded drug due to inadequate directions for use, in violation of 21 U.S.C.

Regarding Avandia, GSK will plead guilty to failure to report data to the FDA, in violation of 21 U.S.C.

So, nothing "inappropriate " huh, Dannii?

Oh, and what about the statement of apology to the Chinese government and its people?

You remember that, right Dannii?

The fine of  $490m (£297m) after a court found your company guilty of bribery after having made an estimated $150m in illegal profits.

Still,  nothing "inappropriate. " 

What about the out-of-court settlements made to over 3,000 claimants who were addicted to your company's antidepressant, Seroxat?

Or the countless settlements made with mothers who, as a result of ingesting Seroxat during pregnancy, gave birth to children with birth defects or had to abort their foetuses because the chances of survival after birth were slim, to say the least. Case in point, Joanne Thomas from Pennsylvania. You, or rather your company, gave her the run-around, she lost her case against you, appealed, lost that too - then, miraculously your company settled with her after your law team messed up by not disclosing everything to her attorneys - naughty Glaxo - (see here and here)

Still, nothing "inappropriate. " - I mean, what's 800 or so kids being born with severe heart or cranial defects? Just part of the business, huh Dannii?

Don't even get me started on Study 329, Dannii!

I could go on and on to show you exactly where GSK have been inappropriate but what's the point?

Glaxo employees, Portsmouth included, have a knack of burying their heads in the sand when it comes to Glaxo's dark history - Maybe that's the only way they get to sleep at night, who knows?

First rule of ethics, admit to your inappropriateness then seek to make sure it doesn't happen again.

The expectations of society have always been the same, we expect you to be honest and truthful, we expect to live and not suffer at the hands of your drugs.

End of rant.

Dannii Portsmouth's musings can be read, in full, here.


Bob Fiddaman.


*Disclaimer*

This blog post was not sponsored or endorsed by Nescafe.

All That Glitters is Cafepharma

The forums over at Cafepharma are always good for a laugh. There are many to choose from, each one highlighting why the pharmaceutical industry is a place where reps turn into children who argue over the silliest of things and when questioned about ethics, bang the same drum as GlaxoSmithKline's CEO, Andrew Witty - in as much that any problem their company have been embroiled in isn't really a problem anyone should be talking about, it was all part of an era and everything and everyone has changed now.

Reading the forums one would think that it's not just patients and lawyers who don't trust the industry, there are many reps who frequent the forums to sound off and/or bitch about the latest bonus,cutback, layoff or manager.

You reap what you sow guys...and gals.

Cafepharma has a huge list of company boards, I'm going to focus on the big boys, namely, Johnson and Johnson, Eli Lilly and British giant, GlaxoSmithKline.