What Can We Learn from Medical Whistleblowers?

A year ago, I received an E-mail from a research scientist at a major pharmaceutical company. The scientist had read my articles on whistleblowers who had raised concerns about the undue infl uence of the pharmaceutical industry on American medicine My industry source had information for me about drug company practices, but—out of fear of career ruin—would only talk on the condition that I would conceal the scientist's identity. For the next year or so, I had repeated contacts with the scientist. As I listened to this researcher—and to the other medical whistleblowers that I continued to interview—it occurred to me that each whistleblower was like the proverbial blind man with a hand on the elephant. Each could describe one piece of the puzzle, but the full picture could only emerge by bringing these whistleblowers together. With an eye to focusing on the systemic problems that have allowed American medicine to be unduly infl uenced by industry, on May 15, 2005, I brought together fi ve whistleblowers in Washington, D. C. I asked them each to tell their story and to suggest ways to restore objectivity to medicine and medical research. The Whistleblowers Four whistleblowers attended in person, and the anonymous industry scientist participated via speakerphone. The whistleblowers came from an extraordinary variety of different professional backgrounds. David Graham. This Food and Drug Administration (FDA) safety offi cer raised concerns about the cardiovascular side effects of rofecoxib (Vioxx) and other Cox-2 inhibitors. He testifi ed at a United States Senate Finance Committee hearing on rofexocib, the FDA, and Merck [1,2]. Graham attended the roundtable in his own personal capacity and was not representing the FDA. Allen Jones. This investigator at the Pennsylvania Offi ce of the Inspector General led an investigation into an off-the-books account, funded in part by drug companies, from which payments were made to state employees to develop a medication treatment algorithm. He fi led a civil rights lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Offi ce of the Inspector General to protect his right to publicly discuss his fi ndings, and was later fi red from his job for talking to the press [3–6]. Stefan Kruszewski. This Harvard-trained psychiatrist was hired by the Bureau of Program Integrity in the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare to oversee the state's mental health and substance misuse programs. He fi led a law suit in a federal court in the Middle District of …