The Star Tribune interviewed a couple of “co-authors” to a disputed study of Medtronic‘s bone-growth product Infuse.
A former military surgeon, Dr. Timothy Kuklo, is accused by a former supervisor of falsifying the study’s results, which were favorable to the product. Medtronic paid Kuklo more than $850,000 in fees and other expenses between 2001 and 2009.
The other authors listed on the study said they were unaware of the paper until after it was published. The Army determined their signatures were forged on the final paperwork.
The co-authors described Kuklo has a gifted mentor, but one who was increasingly “overconfident and ambitious.” As for the product, one co-author said it’s a good product, but just not as good as the study suggested.
Dennis Kucinich offered a smart way to reduce the costs of medication (but it could work for devices, too) a few years ago.
Since the government already picks up the lion’s share of research expenses, it could increase that to 100 percent on the condition that any new drugs developed using that research enter the market as generics, with any company who wishes to manufacture and sell them free to do so.
This would end the practice of the companies charging extremely high prices for patented drugs — and maintaining those prices by making teeny-weeny changes to any drug whose patent was about to expire. (For instance, Prilosec and Nexium, with Nexium being only 2 percent more effective but sold as “new and improved.”)
Companies who still wanted to be able to patent their drugs would be free to do so if they paid 100 percent of all R&D costs themselves.
Sorry not to include my POINT, which is that commercial interests should not be allotting grant money in attempts to influence researchers to report in ways that are favorable to them – whether it be drug or device manufacturers.