Infinite Mind spoke to Mr Pitts on the show as “a former FDA associate commissioner who was involved in the FDA’s 2004 “black box” labeling of antidepressants as carrying a risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior, and who was at the time the “go-to” guy for the FDA on that issue,” according to Bill Lichtenstein, Senior Executive Producer of “Infinite Mind,” in a May 9, 2008 written response to “Stealth Marketers,” posted on Pharmalot.
“What we didn’t know, because he didn’t disclose it to us,” Mr Lichtenstein says, “was that Pitts is currently working for a public relations firm whose clients include major pharmaceutical companies.”
The MS&L website shows Mr Pitts’ many drug company clients include Lilly, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline, the marketers of the SSRI antidepressants Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil.
Mr Pitts also failed to mention his PR job when he appeared on NPR’s Talk of the Nation and News Hour with Jim Lehrer, according to Mr Lichtenstein. He posted a link to “Prozac Nation,” on DrugWonks in April, 2008 without disclosing the conflicts of interests when describing the experts as well.
In their article, Ms Brownlee and Ms Lenzer noted the undisclosed affiliations of Mr Pitts and Dr Goodman with CMPI, which they described as “an industry-funded front, or "Astroturf" group, which receives a majority of its funding from drug companies.”
In a blog defending himself, Mr Pitts wrote: “I think it's important to note that, per full disclosure, I was never asked. I would like to assume that when I am called for interviews that the producers have done their due diligence.”
“I also want to be clear that on the other programs mentioned,” he said, “I was asked by the producers about my various affiliations. I answered fully and honestly -- and the decision was made not to mention it on the air.”
“When you go to www.cmpi.org, one click on my name tells you everything,” Mr Pitts pointed out. Which begs the question of how would listeners to a radio program know to look for a link on this website when his association with CMPI is not even mentioned?
When the story broke, blogger, Lisa Van S, kicked off the internet slugfest on Pharmalot on May 6, 2008, by writing: “Peter Pitts, Have you no shame!!… Does anyone have the DSMIV diagnosis for habitual Lieing.”
Over at DrugWonks on May 6, Mr Goldberg began a “destroy the messenger” campaign against Ms Lenzer, in a blog titled, “I Dream of Jeannie ... Retracting,” and the comment, “Talk about tight Jeannes!” with a January 17, 2005, New York Times article titled, “Dispute Puts a Medical Journal Under Fire,” pasted in the blog.
The “Dispute” refers to an article by Ms Lenzer in the January 2005 BMJ, which reported that the FDA was to review confidential Eli Lilly documents that had been sent to the BMJ by an anonymous source and that these documents had gone "missing" during a 1994 product liability suit filed against Lilly. After Lilly complained, the BMJ investigated the matter and issued a retraction of the “missing” statement and explained:
“The BMJ did not intend to suggest that Eli Lilly caused these documents to go missing. As a result of the investigation, it is clear that these documents did not go missing.”
“The BMJ accepts that Eli Lilly acted properly in relation to the disclosure of these documents in these claims. The BMJ is happy to set the record straight and to apologise to Eli Lilly for this statement, which we now retract, but which we published in good faith.”
Out of Ms Lenzer’s whole article, one single statement was retracted, but on DrugWonks, Mr Goldberg wrote: “BMJ was forced to retract one of her articles.”
Later in the same blog he wrote: “Here is the BMJ retraction AND apology as it pertains to Lenzer's unethical and sleazy behavior,” and pasted a copy of the retraction which shows that only one statement was corrected.
The Lenzer distraction idea was obviously chosen as the main talking point early because Mr Pitts pasted the exact same articles on Pharmalot. But on May 7, blogger pg, responded with a January 17, 2005 article that said the Associated Press reported that BMJ editor, Kamran Abbasi, said the apology was limited to the issue of whether the documents were missing from the court case. On May 13, Professor Jonathan Leo, a well-recognized SSRI expert, posted comments on the Slate website and quoted an e-mail to CNN from Kamram Abbasi, which stated:
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