The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has published a detailed report on Dr. Charles Nemeroff, the prominent Emory University psychiatrist whose close connections to pharmaceutical companies have led the U.S. Senate to investigate his activities.
U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee, recently released documents indicating that Nemeroff earned millions of dollars from drug companies but reported little of that money to Emory, a possible violation of federal and university disclosure rules. Much of the money came from speeches, consulting fees and positions on boards.
Nemeroff generates such divided opinions that he has become the subject of a number of polarized descriptions:
He’s “Dr. Bling-Bling” or a “brilliant physician.” An “arrogant academic bully” or an “extraordinary leader.” Whether Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff is “an asset to our state and country,” as former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn has said, or “a shill” for pharmaceutical companies, as a former boss described him — few seem to have neutral opinions.
AHP has reported on a New York Times article about Nemeroff and the Senate investigation before, and on the broader problem of close connections between the American Psychiatric Association and the pharmaceutical industry.
Is this really unique to psychiatrists? It seems like every medical specialty is pretty much the same. Big Pharma has a long reach.
From today’s Inside Higher Ed:
“Emory University announced late Monday that Charles Nemeroff — the subject of a U.S. Senate probe on conflict of interest by federally supported researchers — had agreed to step down as chair of psychiatry. Nemeroff will remain as a professor, but the university said it would not submit grant applications in which he would play a role for at least two years.” The rest of the item is here.