Healthcare Hullabaloo: Harvard

Hallowed Halls.

Top is tops – number one is number one – once you’ve reached the apex of your field, no one can claim to be better.

America is known worldwide for the excellence of its higher education – witness the large number of foreign national students at our universities. This year, the best of our best is Harvard University, according to the US News and World Report list. Harvard displaced perennial front-runner Princeton for the top honors this year.

Harvard also scored a two-fer this year. Not only did the University receive top honors, but Harvard Medical Scholl was also named number one.

There is little surprise in this recent ranking – Harvard is almost universally recognized as as being at the pinnacle of higher education. In addition to educational excellence, Harvard is also recognized for its high moral standards as well – Harvard Gentlemen (and Ladies) are expected to represent and maintain the best social and ethical standards.

Agreed?

Well, this makes it especially surprising and revolting that a top professor at Harvard Medical Scholl was caught with his hand in the cookie jar – a cookie jar belonging to Big Pharm.

It seems that leading child psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Biederman of Harvard Medical School failed to report over 1.6 million dollars in funding that he received from the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Biederman single-handedly increased (by a factor of 40) the diagnosis of childhood Bipolar disorder. He is also, not so coincidentally, a leading proponent of treating children with powerful (and expensive) anti-psychotic prescription drugs.

You can read all the dirty details here:

http://news.injuryboard.com/harvard-psychiatrist-must-suspend-clinical-trials-over-conflicts.aspx?googleid=254242#ixzz1BPWdTDe5

As a result of this debacle, Dr. Biederman could lose his position at Harvard (not an easy thing to do to a tenured professor). He is also being sued by parents who claim that their children were harmed by the drugs he recommended. And the reputation of Harvard Medical School has a nice new thick coat of tarnish.

How could this happen? Why would pharmaceutical companies exert undue influence on a respected Medical Researcher? Well, this question becomes far less baffling when you follow the money. Here’s a partial list of some of the medications involved in the scandal as well as the monthly costs associated with their use (from Drugstore.com):

Abilify - $600
Zyprexa - $300-$900
Seroquel - $150 - $250
Geodon - $200-$250

Multiply these figures by the thousands of pediatric patients, who take this drug each and every month, year after year, and it’s easy to see how that 1.6 million dollar ‘contribution’ is just a drop in the bucket for the pharmaceutical industry.

More importantly, it becomes clear to everyone just how much influence that Big Pharm has on us and our health (fiscal and otherwise).

Sadly, the aftermath of this incident is beyond tragic. Thousands of innocent children may have been permanently affected by the misapplication of these medications. A renowned professor may have lost his career. And the Number One Medical School in the country has just stepped in a big stinky pile of Number Two.

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