Nemeroff is a symptom of a bigger problem
Peter Lurie, deputy director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, and Jonas Hines, a PC research associate, opined in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about noted Emory psychiatrist Charles Nemeroff, he of the $2.8 million in Pharma consulting contracts.
It might be tempting to write off Nemeroff as a bad apple. But investigations by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee have identified several other prominent academics who failed to disclose the enormous sums of industry largess they accepted.
The problem is the notion that disclosure alone is a panacea for conflict of interest. Disclosure amounts to an evasion of responsibility because the consumer of the disclosed information then becomes responsible for interpreting it. Is a talk by a presenter who has received $30,000 from a sponsor twice as tainted as one by a presenter who has accepted $15,000?
Read the rest of their op-ed at AJC.com.