Did Joe Biederman do anything unethical or wrong by asking Johnson and Johnson to support a research center to develop gene and imaging based diagnostics to more accurately screen for child and adolescent bipolar disorder and then use risperidone (and other drugs) to conduct open label and randomized clinical trials to establish if treatment based on new screening criteria produced better results?
Yes. Biederman should have been more transparent or more promotional about it. Because in this day and age if you don't let your enemies know what you are doing by definition you are hiding something. And if you are hiding something you are by definition conspiring to poison people (particularly children) with drugs that are "powerful" but somehow also "ineffective" and dangerous.
Should J and J not have decided to spend $6 million promoting awareness of bipolar conditions in kids, support CME with unrestricted grants and seek ideas on the appropriate way to design studies for pediatric labeling?
It should have been more open, more willing to give up control and let the science and consensus go where it might instead of letting marketing people try to micromanage.
It's the secrecy stupid. You have nothing to be afraid of. Or ashamed of. If you are transparent that will leave your enemies as the only ones skulking around, conspiring, feeding and feeding off trial attorney dough for fear and profit.
Read More
