healthy4u: University of Minnesota

Minimizing Legal Liability or Upholding the Mission? - the Markingson Case Redux

There are new, and troubling developments in the long running case of Dan Markingson, the psychiatric patient and research subject who committed suicide while enrolled in a trial of anti-psychotic drugs at the University of Minnesota nearly 10 years ago. Summary of the Case A good quick summary of this case just <a href="http://blogs.law.stanford.edu/lawandbiosciences/2013/03/14/the-markingson-case-investigate-the-university-of-minnesota/">appeared </a>in the Center for Law and Bioscience blob out of the Stanford Law School.  <blockquote class="tr_bq">Dan Markingson – a vulnerable, psychotic young man – was forced to choose between enrolling in a Pharma-funded drug study or being involuntarily committed (in other words, locked up).  A UMN [University of Minnesota]  doctor enrolled him in the study despite having just determined that Dan 'lack[ed] the capacity to make decisions regarding [his] treatment,' rendering it highly unlikely that Dan could have given valid informed consent to participate.  As Dan's mother, Mary Weiss, observed his mental condition deteriorating, she repeatedly tried to have Dan removed from the trial – at one point asking  'Do we have to wait until he kills himself or someone else before anyone does anything?'  But the UMN co-investigators in the drug study refused to terminate his participation.  Shortly after Ms. Weiss made her desperate plea, Dan Markingson killed himself by cutting his own throat.</blockquote> Our most recent (2011) post on the case was <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/02/university-of-minnesota-where-nothing.html">here</a>.  In it we also noted that there was reason to think: -  The design of the controlled trial was flawed. -  Financial conflicts of interests may have influenced the trial investigators' actions, particularly their questionable enrollment of Mr Markingson in the trial and their retention of him in it despite his apparent clinical deterioration. Despite that, when bioethicists and the University of Minnesota called for a new investigation of the trial and what happened to Mr Markingson, the university rebuffed them. Worse, as detailed in a 2012 <a href="http://blogs.law.stanford.edu/lawandbiosciences/2012/12/14/how-not-to-run-a-drug-study-the-university-of-minnesota-puts-on-a-clinic/">post</a> in the Center for Law and Bioscience blog, not only did university officials rebuff this call, but the university general counsel, who had been operating at the heart of this case, appeared to threaten the leading bioethicist dissident, Dr Carl Elliott: <blockquote class="tr_bq"> After Carl Elliott, the University of Minnesota bioethicist, refused to drop the matter, Rotenberg asked the university’s Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee to take up the question of '[w]hat is the faculty[’s] collective role in addressing factually incorrect attacks on particular university faculty research activities?' – a question that appeared both to accuse Elliott of 'factually incorrect attacks' and to call for some unspecified action to 'address' them.  Other faculty, including the president of the Minnesota chapter of the American Association of University Professors, viewed this as an attempt to intimidate Elliott into silence.  If so, it backfired.  The story <a href="http://goo.gl/4BIuM">ended up in the press</a>, putting the Markingson case back in the public eye and once again making the University of Minnesota look really bad.</blockquote> New Evidence Unearthed In 2013, Dr Elliott made public what may be important new evidence in the case.  As <a href="http://www.startribune.com/local/193447511.html">summarized</a> by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, <blockquote class="tr_bq">The professor, Carl Elliott, says he has obtained consent documents for two separate schizophrenic patients that appear to be exact copies — not just in the subjects’ apparent replies, but in the positions of the lettering on the pages. Elliott said it is improbable that separate patients would provide identical responses to the questionnaire, which includes open-ended questions about the risks and requirements of clinical research. And that, he said, raises questions about whether the university was really examining patients to determine their ability to consent to research.</blockquote>  One crucial question about the case is how a patient who was actively psychotic - out of touch with reality - could give true informed consent to participation in a drug trial.  These new documents suggest major irregularities in the process used in the trial to assure that patients did give informed consent.  Furthermore, as <a href="http://www.mndaily.com/news/campus/2013/03/14/10-years-study-scandal-lives">reported</a> by the Minnesota Daily, other documents that Dr Elliott found suggested problems with records that related to whether study investigators would have had legal authority to access Mr Markingson's medical records, also suggesting major problems with trial administration.  These documents, unknown until recently, suggest new concerns with how the study in which Mr Markingson was enrolled, and during which he died, was run.  Yet, the University of Minnesota's official response to them, once again orchestrated by university counsel Mark Rotenberg, attacked the legitimacy of the documents (and indirectly, attacked Prof Elliott again), as reported by the Star-Tribune, <blockquote class="tr_bq">the university’s general counsel, Mark Rotenberg, challenged the authenticity of the documents and disagreed that study recruiters failed to obtain proper and independent consent from mentally ill patients. 'I am challenging these allegations directly,' he said. 'We have no reason to believe the consent forms were prepared inappropriately.'</blockquote> As Matt Lamkin <a href="http://blogs.law.stanford.edu/lawandbiosciences/2013/03/14/the-markingson-case-investigate-the-university-of-minnesota/">wrote</a> in the Stanford Law and Bioscience blog,  the University's responses all through this case have been focused  not on the welfare of patients, maintaining the trust of research participants, or the integrity of clinical trials, but on the legal defense of  the University and its leaders <blockquote class="tr_bq">Despite all this (<a href="http://blogs.law.stanford.edu/lawandbiosciences/2012/12/14/how-not-to-run-a-drug-study-the-university-of-minnesota-puts-on-a-clinic/">and much more</a>), the University has never acknowledged any errors or taken any disciplinary action related to the Markingson case and has repeatedly rejected calls for an independent investigation.  That’s probably because from the start the University has handled this case as a litigation matter.  Rather than trying to determine whether there were problems with the way its personnel treated Markingson, the University has focused on minimizing its potential liability.  Accordingly, the University appears to run every inquiry related to the case through the office of its General Counsel, Mr. Rotenberg.  When Carl Elliott (my mentor as a grad student at UMN) wrote <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2010/09/dan-markingson-drug-trial-astrazeneca">a damning article about the case</a> in Mother Jones, the University’s response came from Rotenberg.  When <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/49659724/U-of-M-Board-of-Regents-Markingson-Letter">UMN bioethicists called on the University’s Board of Regents to launch an independent investigation</a>, the Regents deferred to Rotenberg.  Not surprisingly, he declined. When you turn to your lawyer, you’re going to get a particular kind of response.  The GC isn’t in a position to take an objective look at the circumstances.  He’s an advocate.  His role is not to make sure the client has conducted itself ethically, but to minimize the client’s risk.  Asking your lawyer to respond to allegations of wrongdoing is like asking your PR flacks to do so.  Their job is to make their clients look good, not to make sure they’ve acted properly.</blockquote>Note that this still begs the question of who the client is.  Is it the university, or the university's leaders? Furthermore, as Mr Lamkin pointed out, the general counsel would appear to have a conflict of interest.  It may be he has an interest in defending his own actions, as well as those of his client(s), whether they are the university, its leaders, or both.  <blockquote class="tr_bq">In addition to Mr. Rotenberg’s role as the University’s top defender and advocate, there is another reason he cannot impartially consider requests for an investigation: the General Counsel’s Office is an important player in some of the disturbing events at issue.  As noted above, Rotenberg himself has been accused of attempting to intimidate and silence the bioethicist who has most doggedly sought an investigation.  The University’s lawyers are also responsible for the disgraceful silencing of Markingson’s mother, Mary Weiss.  After avoiding liability by arguing the University was immune from suit, these lawyers then threatened to force Weiss – whose son had died in a University doctor’s 'care – <a href="http://blogs.law.stanford.edu/lawandbiosciences/2011/09/15/academic-health-centers-bare-knuckled-litigation-tactics/">to pay the University’s legal costs</a> of some $57,000.  The University used that threat as leverage to get Weiss to forgo an appeal of the trial court’s decision.</blockquote> So as the University continues to refuse any new consideration of this this seemingly never-ending case, Dr Elliott has posted an <a href="https://www.change.org/petitions/governor-mark-dayton-of-minnesota-investigate-psychiatric-research-misconduct-at-the-university-of-minnesota-2">online petition</a> calling for an outside investigation.   We will see how Mr Rotenberg reacts to this. Summary A very troubling aspect of this case is that it has shown that the university leadership has seemed to care, at best, more about fending off litigation than upholding the university's mission.  The mission of the university is supposed to be discovering and disseminating the truth in a spirit of free inquiry.  Added to the mission of medical schools and university teaching hospitals is taking good care of patients, and putting the patients' interests ahead of all other concerns.  Yet, in this case, university leaders have not seemed to care whether in their haste to push back legal liability they were stepping on their faculty's academic freedom and free speech, the integrity of the medical research done at the university, and most importantly the rights of their patients and research subjects.  Furthermore, it is not clear whether they mainly feared the impact of litigation on the university, or how litigation might actually end up holding them accountable. As Dr Judy Stone <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/molecules-to-medicine/2013/03/12/a-clinical-trial-and-suicide-leave-many-questions-part-5-the-case-of-the-mysteriously-appearing-documents/">wrote</a> in her Scientific American blog, <blockquote class="tr_bq">  it appears that UMN believes, as do many other institutions, that protecting itself from scandal and its consequences comes first and foremost and that, like the big banks, that it is too big to be punished.</blockquote> Again, note that UMN cannot itself believe or protect.  People acting ostensibly on its behalf may have been protecting themselves from scandal, and believing that the size and status of their institution gave them, the leaders, impunity. The case of Mr Dan Markingson is a continuing reminder that to reform health care, health care organizations need to be lead by people who put the health care mission first and are willing to be accountable for that mission.   I hope that eventually there is an honest investigation of this case, and a commitment to reform based on its conclusions. See additional thoughts from Dr Howard Brody <a href="http://brodyhooked.blogspot.com/2013/03/latest-on-markingson-case-at-u-minn.html">on the Hooked: Ethics, Medicine and Pharma blog</a>, on the <a href="http://1boringoldman.com/index.php/2013/03/13/intrinsically-flawed-and-dangerous/">1BoringOldMan blog</a>, <a href="http://ptable.blogspot.com/2013/03/online-petition-requesting-governor.html">on the Periodic Table blog</a>, and last but certainly not least, many comments by Dr Carl Elliott on the <a href="http://loathingbioethics.blogspot.com/">Fear and Loathing in Bioethics blog.  </a>

Minimizing Legal Liability or Upholding the Mission? - the Markingson Case Redux

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15 Mar 2013

Who Is Really "Bullying?" - Academic Leaders and the Stifling of Critics of Conflicts of Interests

Universities, which are supposed to discover and disseminate knowledge, ought to be the foremost defenders of free speech and a free press.  However, in the past decades, university executives have become notorious for trying to control speech that offends their political sensibilities (for numerous examples, see the FIRE - Foundation for Individual Rights in Education <a href="http://thefire.org/">web-site</a>.)  It seems that academic leaders get even more upset when their or their faculties' conflicts of interest are criticized, as demonstrated by updates about two important cases we have discussed. Columbia University We recently <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/04/henry-kissinger-icelands-promoter.html">posted</a> about reactions at the university to revelations in the movie "Inside Job" that the Dean of the Business School and one of its prominent professors failed to disclose pay they received that might have motivated their enthusiastic promotion of economic policies that helped contribute to the Great Recession.  These reactions occurred six months after the movie came out.  A Columbia Spectator student columnist <a href="http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2011/04/26/compromising-memory">asked</a> why it took so long: <blockquote>Why have students waited until April to address the consequences of “Inside Job” when the film was released in October? Why has our reaction been delayed by seven months?</blockquote> Her postulated answer: <blockquote> Why should Columbia need an outside documentary to point out its ethical failures? Embedded in the Spectator news article about the film—published April 15— is a quote from University Senator Liya Yu that offers a frightening answer to our question about the delayed student reaction. 'I think people in the Business School haven’t responded because they are afraid,' Yu was quoted saying. 'If you are the dean of a school, obviously all the students are going to be dependent on you for their careers and futures. It’s hard for them to do anything.' I think this explanation extends to students beyond those currently enrolled in the Business School. In fact, its implications pose a threat to student journalism as a whole. For the first time in history, everything that a student journalist writes during his or her time in college is published on the Internet. This is a good thing for many reasons: It increases readership, allows writers to cross-reference easily, etc. But it also creates a permanent, compromising memory that is available forever to anyone who seeks it. From the moment the college application process began, we were told that the content of our Facebook profiles could be used against us in admissions. We have learned to censor our traceable online behavior so as not to compromise our professional or educational prospects. Unfortunately, this has led to journalistic over-caution. We fear that anything we say now will be used against us later. And maybe it’s true. After all, not enough time has passed for us to take a careful account of the degree to which students’ first publications can affect their futures. Even editors have advised me to mitigate the strongest claims in my columns for fear of consequences to come. Perhaps they are right. But the most insidious kind of censorship—the hardest to recognize, the hardest to combat—is self-censorship, the persistent imaginative failure that prevents us from even recognizing what we should be writing about. In the Internet age, bravery in student journalism is not trailing a military unit on the Iraqi front lines. Rather, it is the willingness to address controversial issues as they surface, not once these points of view have become popular. Our brand of fear—which is frankly selfish—censors our thoughts almost unnoticed. Next time, let’s skip the delayed reaction. I for one hope to do better.</blockquote> So students may fear challenging conflicted faculty or administrators for fear of immediate academic punishment and future harm to career prospects in a society in which criticism of acquisitive leaders is decreasingly tolerated. University of Minnesota Earlier this year we <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/02/university-of-minnesota-where-nothing.html">posted</a> about the troubling case of the death of an ostensibly voluntary participant in a clinical trial at the University of Minnesota years ago.  A particular concern was whether the money they received from the trial's sponsor influenced faculty and university leaders to overlook problems that might have put patients at risk in a trial whose main goal was marketing, not science. The case got recent attention in an article by Dr Carl Elliott, a university professor of bioethics, and a letter he signed with other faculty requesting a new university inquiry into the case.  Not only did the university administration rebuff this request, but it now seems to be looking for ways to deter any future criticism of the institution's human research.  As <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Some-U-of-Minnesota-Faculty/127261/">reported</a> in the Chronicle of Higher Education, <blockquote>At the prompting of the University of Minnesota's general counsel, a committee of the University Senate has taken up the question of how faculty should collectively respond to "factually incorrect attacks" on particular faculty research. Some faculty members say that direct appeal from the general counsel, Mark B. Rotenberg, is an attempt to quiet some faculty members' criticism of drug trials conducted at the university, including one seven years ago in which a participant, Dan Markingson, committed suicide. Before they took up the general counsel's question at a meeting this month, members of the university's Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee were provided with copies of material related to that case, including a letter sent by eight bioethicists to the Board of Regents last fall, asking it to appoint a panel of outside experts to examine the ethical issues raised by the death. Committee members discussed with two administrators who attended that meeting, on April 8, whether faculty members have a responsibility to respond to attacks on fellow faculty members, according to minutes from the meeting; failure to do so, one professor said, could be seen as parallel to 'bullying.'</blockquote> Professor Carl Elliott, who wrote the <a href="http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/09/dan-markingson-drug-trial-astrazeneca">Mother Jones article </a>that brought the recent unpleasantness of the Markingson case back into the public view, was concerned: <blockquote>In an interview, Mr. Elliott said the general counsel's actions are troubling. Instead of fostering an open discussion about research practices, Mr. Rotenberg, and by extension the university administration, is attempting to use the faculty senate as a 'stalking horse' for intimidation and punitive action, Mr. Elliott said.</blockquote> It defies common sense that Dr Elliott, representing only his own intellect and knowledge of ethics, was the "bully" in this case, while Mr Rotenberg, representing the university hierarchy, and the faculty members who ran the trial in which Mr Markingson died were the victims. As University of Minnesota faculty member Karen-Sue Taussig, a medical anthropologist, said <a href="http://www.thehastingscenter.org/Bioethicsforum/Post.aspx?id=5340&blogid=140">per the Bioethics Forum</a>: <blockquote>I was worried the committee might be being used to intimidate a member of the faculty who was critical of the University. It seemed to me that there was a logical inconsistency in the University counsel's position: he did not provide any evidence that any individual faculty member felt chilled by Carl's work, yet his bringing up the issue clearly posed the threat of chilling Carl's speech. . . . In short, I was concerned about the possibility of an Orwellian attempt to invoke academic freedom in order to chill academic freedom.</blockquote> By the way, there is also nothing to suggest that Dr Elliott's work was "factually incorrect."  Per the Bioethics Forum: <blockquote>Philosopher and historian of science Ken Waters, who also attended the second meeting, was just as concerned. 'The University's general council planted a false question, the implicature of which [the committee] seemed to be uncritically accepting (that Carl was advancing factually incorrect claims),' he wrote to me in an e-mail. 'And in planting the question, the counsel was trying to turn the tables and squelch my colleagues' academic freedom by somehow suggesting that they were impinging upon the academic freedom of others.'</blockquote> In the 1980s and 1990s, university administrators tended to attack speech they felt was hurtful to minorities and women, using speech codes (again as has been amply demonstrated by <a href="http://www.thefire.org/">FIRE</a>). Now they seem most sensitive to speech critical of their own exercise of power, and of the cozy financial relationships that generate conflicts of interest and threaten the academic mission.  Furthermore, now that it has become fashionable to decry "bullying," "anti-bullying" initiatives may become the chief way to quell criticism that make academic leaders uncomfortable. Summary At one time, university administrators and favored faculty justified attacks on free enquiry, a crucial part of the academic, by claiming a higher political or social purpose.  Now they seem to be willing to trash the core values of academia to stifle critics of their own actions, especially those involving lucrative conflicts of interest.   Such actions may be a major cause of the <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/anechoic%20effect">anechoic effect</a>. Increasingly, academic institutuions seem to be run more for the personal benefit of their leaders and their cronies than to discover and disseminate knowledge.  True health care reform would return academic medicine to its fundamental purpose, and return its leadership to those who would uphold the mission rather than fill their pockets.   Hat tip to Ed Silverman <a href="http://www.pharmalot.com/2011/04/a-seroquel-clinical-trial-and-academic-freedom/">in the PharmaLot blog</a> re the University of Minnesota case.  See also comments by Prof William Gleason in the Periodic Table blog, e.g.,<a href="http://ptable.blogspot.com/2011/04/whos-making-factually-incorrect.html"> here</a> and <a href="http://ptable.blogspot.com/2011/04/should-general-counsel-at-university-of.html">here</a>, and by Gary Schwitzer <a href="http://www.healthnewsreview.org/blog/2011/04/questions-about-academic-freedom-in-continued-scrutiny-of-seroquel-trial-suicide.html">in the HealthNewsReview blog</a>.

Who Is Really "Bullying?" - Academic Leaders and the Stifling of Critics of Conflicts of Interests

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03 May 2011

The University of Minnesota, Where Nothing Can Go Wrong, Go Wrong, Go Wrong...

As <a href="http://ptable.blogspot.com/2011/02/university-of-minnesota-regents-refuse.html">noted</a> on the Periodic Table blog, the administration of the University of Minnesota continues to believe all is well with its clinical research activities.  A recent internal review said there was nothing more to investigate about the unfortunate death of a psychiatric patient years before. So should we all be relieved? It will take an extensive review of the case to ultimately suggest we should not at all be relieved.  The case raised important concerns about the validity of clinical research, and whether it violates the trust of its patient-subjects.  These concerns had not been addressed before the university's most recent review, and thus seem even more pointed after its recent non-investigation. Background: the Untimely Death of Dan Markingson In May, 2008, the (Minnesota) Pioneer Press ran a series of articles about the untimely death of Dan Markingson which occurred while he was enrolled in a randomized trial sponsored by AstraZeneca (the CAFE study) at a site at the University of Minnesota.  The<a href="http://www.twincities.com/ci_9292549"> first article</a> in the series made the following major points: Mr Markingson had given his consent to be enrolled despite evidence that he was actively psychotic <blockquote>He started having visions of killing his mother in the storm. Markingson was taken Nov. 12, 2003, to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, but it had no open psychiatric beds. He was then transferred to the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview. Weiss said discussions about research started right away at the hospital. Markingson was placed in Fairview's Station 12, a new unit at the time created to treat psychotic patients and screen them for research. Olson and Dr. Charles Schulz, head of the U's psychiatry department, helped launch the unit in part to enhance the hospital's startup schizophrenia program and meet the U's mandate to bring in more research dollars. Olson first recommended on Nov. 14 that a Dakota County District Court commit Markingson to the state treatment center in Anoka because he was not fit to make decisions about his care. He wrote to the court that Markingson was convinced his delusions were real and that he wasn't mentally ill. The doctor changed his opinion about the commitment in less than a week, telling the court Markingson had started to acknowledge the need for help. Reversals by patients are common, Olson explained in an interview with the Pioneer Press last month. Schizophrenics often arrive for treatment with delusions and denial but change their outlook while hospitalized. A judge agreed Nov. 20 with Olson's new recommendation, requiring Markingson to follow the doctor's treatment plan. The next day, Markingson signed a consent form to be part of a national anti-psychotic drug study, Comparison of Atypicals for First Episode, or CAFE. </blockquote> His mother's multiple complaints that while in the study, Markingson was not getting better and not getting proper treatment were ignored <blockquote>Weiss' letters to Olson and Schulz, who was a co-investigator in the study, urged them to consider different treatment options for her son, which would have disqualified him from the study. But the doctors were unconvinced by her pleas. </blockquote> In particular, she wrote with strange prescience, <blockquote>'Do we have to wait until he kills himself or someone else,' she asked three weeks before his suicide, 'before anyone does anything.'</blockquote>There was evidence that Markingson was not getting optimal treatment In retrospect, it was not even clear that Markingson was taking his study medications prior to his suicide: <blockquote>An autopsy showed no medication in Markingson's bloodstream, and a coroner's photo showed a sealed bottle of his medication. Had he been taking his drugs? Study officials could have been fooled. They only counted drugs left in pill bottles instead of testing blood levels in patients. </blockquote>Suggestions that financial conflicts of interest influenced trial investigators' actions The initial news article raised questions whether the study investigator had been unduly influenced to keep Markingson in the study by financial concerns: <blockquote>CAFE was an early opportunity at the U for Olson to add research experience to his academic credentials. The U had recruited him in 2001 for his expertise in schizophrenia. It was a slow start. Olson recruited one patient in 2002, and CAFE study leaders considered dropping him altogether, according to monthly recruiting summaries. Olson and the university had been dropped from a previous study because of low recruiting numbers, the doctor later said in his court deposition. Exchanges between local and national study officials made it clear that there was pressure for results and a 'risk' that the study would be shut down if it didn't recruit enough patients. </blockquote> Note that: <blockquote>As Subject 13, Markingson was worth $15,000 to the U, with some of that going to Olson's salary and the psychiatry department. Switching or adding medications could have disqualified Markingson and halted payments to Olson and the department from AstraZeneca. Overall, the study offered $327,000 to the U and an opportunity to raise the profile of its schizophrenia program. </blockquote> An accompanying Pioneer Press <a href="http://www.twincities.com/ci_9316658">article</a> indicated that both Dr Olson, and the Chair of Psychiatry, Dr S Charles Schulz, were receiving considerable financial support from AstraZeneca and other pharmaceutical companies at the time of the study. <blockquote>Olson received $220,000 from six companies since 2002, including $149,000 from AstraZeneca, according to the state records. Schulz received $562,000, including $112,000 as a researcher and consultant to AstraZeneca. Olson said his AstraZeneca money went straight to the U but did support his salary. Markingson's full participation in the yearlong study meant up to $15,000 for the university. </blockquote>Did the lawsuit's results indicate nothing was wrong? Mr Markingson's mother sued the University of Minnesota and AstraZeneca, but (per the first Pioneer Press article), <blockquote>The lawsuit ended this year after a judge ruled that the university had statutory immunity from such lawsuits and that AstraZeneca shouldn't stand trial because there was no convincing proof that its drug caused Markingson's death. Weiss settled with Olson, the only defendant left. She said she was granted $75,000, which went entirely toward legal bills. </blockquote>Note that the results did not address the university's or its administration's role. Dr Carl Elliott Takes Another Look Thus the case appeared to end, with no real reconsideration of how medical schools' dependence on commercial funding of clinical studies, and how individual faculty members' financial relationships with drug, device, and biotechnology firms may affect research done on human beings. However, in September, 2010, Mother Jones published <a href="http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/09/dan-markingson-drug-trial-astrazeneca">an article </a>by Dr Carl Elliott, a University of Minnesota bioethicist, which raised further questions about the case. <blockquote>I talked to several university colleagues and administrators, trying to learn what had happened. Many of them dismissed the story as slanted and incomplete. Yet the more I examined the medical and court records, the more I became convinced that the problem was worse than the Pioneer Press had reported. The danger lies not just in the particular circumstances that led to Dan's death, but in a system of clinical research that has been thoroughly co-opted by market forces, so that many studies have become little more than covert instruments for promoting drugs</blockquote> Major design defects of the CAFE study: <blockquote>It barred subjects from being taken off their assigned drug; it didn't allow them to be switched to another drug if their assigned drug was not working; and it restricted the number of additional drugs subjects could be given to manage side effects and symptoms such as depression, anxiety, or agitation. Like many clinical trials, the study was also randomized and double-blinded: Subjects were assigned a drug randomly by a computer, and neither the subjects nor the researchers knew which drug it was. These restrictions meant that subjects in the CAFE study had fewer therapeutic options than they would have had outside the study. In fact, the CAFE study also contained a serious oversight that, if corrected, would have prevented patients like Dan from being enrolled. Like other patients with schizophrenia, patients experiencing their first psychotic episode are at higher risk of killing themselves or other people. For this reason, most studies of antipsychotic drugs specifically bar researchers from recruiting patients at risk of violence or suicide, for fear that they might kill themselves or someone else during the study. Conveniently, however, the CAFE study only prohibited patients at risk of suicide, not homicide. This meant that Dan—who had threatened to slit his mother's throat, but had not threatened to harm himself—was a legitimate target for recruitment.</blockquote> As Dr Elliott noted, this appeared to be yet another example of <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/manipulating%20clinical%20research">manipulation of clinical research</a> designed to make the sponsors' products look better, a topic we have frequently discussed on Health Care Renewal: <blockquote>A 2006 study in The American Journal of Psychiatry, which looked at 32 head-to-head trials of atypicals, found that 90 percent of them came out positively for whichever company had designed and financed the trial. This startling result was not a matter of selective publication. The companies had simply designed the studies in a way that virtually ensured their own drugs would come out ahead—for instance, by dosing the competing drugs too low to be effective, or so high that they would produce damaging side effects. Much of this manipulation came from biased statistical analyses and rigged trial designs of such complexity that outside reviewers were unable to spot them. As Dr. Richard Smith, the former editor of the British Medical Journal, has pointed out, 'The companies seem to get the results they want not by fiddling the results, which would be far too crude and possibly detectable by peer review, but rather by asking the 'right' questions.'</blockquote> This was likely what was going on with the CAFE study: <blockquote>Although the documents unsealed in the Seroquel litigation do not specifically mention the CAFE study in which Dan was enrolled, they do suggest that AstraZeneca planned to establish Seroquel as the "atypical of choice in first-episode schizophrenia,' according to a 2000 'Seroquel Strate'y Summary.' A later document titled 'Seroquel PR Plan 2001' discusses the agenda for an advisory panel meeting in Hawaii. Among the potential topics were the marketing of Seroquel to first-episode patients, adolescents, and the elderly. The document refers to these populations as "vulnerable patient groups." Even more alarming are internal documents suggesting that AstraZeneca was designing clinical trials as a covert method of marketing Seroquel. In 1997, when Dr. Andrew Goudie, a psychopharmacologist at the University of Liverpool, asked AstraZeneca to fund a research study he was planning, a company official replied that 'R&D is no longer responsible for Seroquel research—it is now the responsibility of Sales and Marketing.' The official also noted that funding decisions would depend on whether the study was likely to show a 'competitive advantage for Seroquel.'</blockquote>Were study subjects protected? So, as Dr Elliott wrote, <blockquote>Many clinical studies place human subjects at risk—at a minimum, the risk of mild discomfort, and at worst, the risk of serious pain and death. Bioethicists and regulators spend a lot of time and energy debating the degree of risk that ought to be permitted in a study, how those risks should be presented to subjects, and the way those risks should be balanced against the potential benefits a subject might receive. What is simply assumed, without much consideration at all, is that the research is being conducted to produce scientific knowledge. This assumption is codified in a number of foundational ethics documents, such as the Nuremberg Code, which was instituted following Nazi experiments on concentration camp victims. The Nuremberg Code stipulates that an 'experiment should be such as to yield fruitful results for the good of society,' and 'the degree of risk to be taken should never exceed that determined by the humanitarian importance of the problem to be solved by the experiment.' But what if a research study is not really aimed at producing genuine scientific knowledge at all? The documents emerging in litigation suggest that pharmaceutical companies are designing, analyzing, and publishing trials primarily as a way of positioning their drugs in the marketplace. This raises a question unconsidered in any current code of research ethics. How much risk to human subjects is justified in a study whose principal aim is to 'generate commercially attractive messages'?</blockquote> Conflicts of interest Of course, university faculty pushed to bring in more external funds to support their careers (see <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/12/american-medical-schools-are-only-in-it.html">this post</a>) by university leaders with their eyes on the bottom line may not be too critical of the intricate designs of the studies they need to do to continue their academic careers, and whether such studies are really meant to promote science and improve patient care, or position products in the marketplace, especially when the same companies are paying them as consultants, speakers, etc. In fact, Dr Elliott found reasons to make such concerns specific to the case of Mr Markingson's untimely death: <blockquote>Olson had another financial reason to maintain good relations with AstraZeneca. According to a disclosure statement for a 2006 conference, he was a member of the AstraZeneca 'speaker's bureau,' giving paid talks for the company. He had similar arrangements with Eli Lilly and Janssen, the makers of the other atypicals being tested in the CAFE study, as well as Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer. In addition, Olson was working as a paid consultant for Lilly, Janssen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Pfizer. </blockquote> Bioethicists Demand an Investigation So eight University of Minnesota bioethicists, including Dr Elliott, wrote a letter to the University administration demanding an investigation, as <a href="http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/111419724.html">reported</a> in December, 2010, by the Minneapolis- St Paul Star-Tribune, <blockquote>In a letter to the board Monday, the professors questioned whether U psychiatrists lacked ethical judgment in enrolling the victim, Dan Markingson, a schizophrenic who may have lacked the wherewithal to consent to research. They also questioned whether financial incentives from AstraZeneca, the drugmaker funding the study, presented conflicts for the researchers, Dr. Stephen Olson and Dr. S. Charles Schulz.</blockquote> At the time, the administration promised a serious response: <blockquote>U leaders will take the letter seriously and take the protection of human research subjects seriously, said the U's general counsel, Mark Rotenberg. </blockquote> But then almost immediately indicated its bias: <blockquote>'The fact that this is tragic doesn't mean the treating physicians did anything wrong,' he said.</blockquote> What, Us Worry? It did not take long for Mark Rotenberg to decide that there was nothing more to worry about. As <a href="http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_17323154">reported</a> in February, 2011, by the Pioneer Press: <blockquote>in a Monday letter to Elliott and colleagues, the chairman of the U's board of regents wrote 'we do not believe further university resources should be expended re-reviewing a matter such as this, which has already received such exhaustive analysis by independent authoritative bodies.' 'Our general counsel has provided us with the extensive reviews of this case that were performed over the years by a number of independent experts and governmental units,' chairman Clyde Allen Jr. said in the letter. 'Each and every one of these reviews resulted in the same conclusion: there was no improper or inappropriate care provided to Mr. Markingson, nor is there evidence of misconduct or violation of applicable laws or regulations.' </blockquote> Of course, since Mr Rotenberg is responsible for, among other things, reducing the university's legal liability, one could see how he might not want to delve further into this case.  As we noted earlier, it is not clear that previous "exhaustive" investigations asked the questions that needed to be asked, or had access to all the relevant data.  The issues are not whether their was criminal conduct, or even civil liability, but whether the university is presiding over good science and protection of research subjects? So we should be worried, of course, that commercial firms sponsor research on human beings mainly to serve marketing objectives, and that university faculty and administrators go along, allowing their formerly prestigious universities' names to be added to the research in exchange for the money they so much want to keep themselves living in the style to which they are accustomed. We ought to be particularly worried when these universities seem to forget about their mission to find and disseminate new knowledge in favor of defending the work that continues to bring in the money. Thus, physicians, researchers, patients, and the public ought to be very skeptical about clinical research sponsored by commercial firms with vested interests in the research turning out a particular way, and even about research not sponsored by such firms, but done by researchers who have personal financial ties to such firms. Worse, patients ought to be extremely skeptical about the motives of researchers who want to enroll them in trials when the researchers have financial ties to commercial firms whose products could be promoted through such trials, and especially when such firms are sponsoring the trials. As a long-time advocate for evidence-based medicine, whose advancement depends on the continuing creation of valid research evidence from clinical research, it is heart-breaking to have to make these recommendations, but they will be necessary until there is better assurance that clinical research is being done to advance science and patient care, not the commercial interests of the sponsors and the researchers. Until academic medicine becomes more open about how and why it is doing clinical research, such skepticism is warranted. However, I will end with a ray of hope. If the administrators and faculty do not get it, the student journalists do. Read these words in an <a href="http://www.mndaily.com/2011/02/10/regents-play-innocent">editorial</a> in the Minnesota Daily: <blockquote>Of course, the University has maintained neither it nor anyone involved in the case did anything wrong, an odd claim to make after the Minnesota Legislature unanimously passed a law that prohibits exactly what happened and named the law after Markingson. The University seems to think that because it was not held liable in court for Markingson’s death, it did nothing wrong. This is false; it is a cynical excuse to keep corporate drug money flowing into the University. The regents’ decision fundamentally undermines our mission: Supposedly, the University is 'dedicated to … the search for truth.' But the letter makes it clear that corporate research cash is more important to the University than patient safety and transparency. Refusing to set up an independent investigation is a willfully ignorant attempt to sweep the Markingson case under the rug and damages the integrity of the entire University.</blockquote> Perhaps it is time for the state legislature to take another look at this issue. True health care reform would separate clinical research, that is, research done on human beings, from the commercial interests of health care corporations and the people who work for them. ADDENDUM (18 March, 2011) - See <a href="http://www.healthbeatblog.com/2011/03/the-dark-side-of-industry-funded-drug-trials.html#more">this post</a> by Naomi Freundlich on the Health Beat blog.

The University of Minnesota, Where Nothing Can Go Wrong, Go Wrong, Go Wrong...

As noted on the Periodic Table blog, the administration of the University of Minnesota continues to believe all is well with its clinical research activities. A recent internal review said there was …

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15 Feb 2011

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