Pfizer Probed Over Payments to Harvard Medical School Professors; Is Drug Industry Goliath Trying to Buy Influence at Prestigious University?

Pfizer Inc., one of the world’s biggest drug companies, is being grilled about payments the company made to more than 100 faculty members at Harvard Medical School as part of an investigation into the influence the drug industry holds over the medical community.

Senator Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), member of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to Pfizer asking for more information about payments made to Harvard professors since Jan. 1, 2007. At least 149 Harvard faculty members reportedly have received payments from Pfizer. The company has until March 11, 2009 to respond to Grassley’s request.

Grassley is spearheading efforts to uncover kickbacks and other improper financial influence exerted by large drug companies, such as Pfizer, over medical schools where the next generation of American physicians and medical researchers are being educated. The fact that prestigious Harvard Medical School is so heavily targeted by payments from Pfizer speaks volumes about the increasing reach and magnitude of the drug industry’s influence.

Harvard Flunks On Limiting Drug Company Influence

In a national survey of U.S. medical schools in 2008, the American Medical Student Association gave Harvard Medical School a grade of “F” for how well the school controlled drug company payments to faculty members. The university was also flagged for failing to submit paperwork about the payments to the sponsors of the survey.

A recent New York Times report found that about 1,600 of the medical school’s 8,900 professors and lecturers have admitted that they or a relative have a financial interest in a business related to their teaching, research or clinical care.

Other Payments Have Been Scrutinized

Pfizer has been under the microscope before for payments to Harvard Medical School faculty members. An investigation led by Grassley recently uncovered $4.2 million in payments made to three Harvard psychiatrists who had run clinical trials and otherwise promoted antipsychotic medicines for children. Those payments were made between 2000 and 2007.

Pfizer Presence at Harvard Protest Rally Questioned

Pfizer also is being questioned over recent reports that a drug company representative took cell-phone camera pictures of Harvard medical students during an October 2008 campus protest rally against drug-company influence. Students said they felt intimidated by the presence of the Pfizer employee, who has not been identified, and feared that pictures taken at the rally might be sent to Pfizer and used against them.

Grassley said he found the incident at the rally “troubling” and wants Pfizer to turn over any and all company communications about the photos taken of Harvard medical students who spoke out against the influence of the drug industry on their campus.

Is Pfizer Playing Dirty Pool?

Accusations of financial kickbacks, paying professors for favorable study findings, and other such underhanded tactics at one of the most prestigious medical schools in the country are alarming, to say the least. Our best and brightest medical students should not be trained and educated under the shadow and influence of big pharmaceutical companies.

Students who come out of medical school already in the back pocket of Pfizer or other corporate giants are more likely to put their own financial interests before those of their patients. For that reason, we wish Senator Grassley luck in his continuing investigation into the accusations of impropriety against Pfizer.

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