OpEdNews - Article: MHRA 'No Comment'

A while ago I wrote to the MHRA to ask them if they would like to comment on the recent report in The New England Journal of Medicine which said the makers of popular antidepressants published only 14 percent of their unconvincing clinical results.

I provided them with 28 newspaper stories from around the world.

Here's the email I got back from them:

----- Original Message -----
From: MHRA
Information Centre
To: fiddaman64
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008
5:10 PM
Subject: RE: Effectiveness Of Antidepressants Questioned

Dear Mr Fiddaman,

Thank you for your recent enquiry to the MHRA.

We have no comment to make on the links referred to in your email. You might be interested to check the link below:

http://www.instituteofclinicalresearch.org/id621EMWA.asp

Please contact us again if you need further assistance with this, or any other queries.

Kind Regards,

Central Enquiry Point

-----

No comment? Why?... and why on earth send me a link to a ICR/EMWA Joint Symposium?

ICR is the Institute of Clinical Research, EMWA is the European Medical Writers Association, their blurb being:

The European Medical Writers Association was founded in 1989 by a small group of professional biomedical communicators with academic, industrial and journalistic affiliations. Their aim was to provide a forum to promote standards of excellence in medical writing by furthering the professional development of members and increasing awareness of medical writing throughout Europe.

This is all very confusing to me, I was merely asking the MHRA to comment on the recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine and they respond by sending me a link to some sort of seminar full of psychiatrists and ghost writers!

1 | 2 | 3