Saturday, March 13, 2010

J&J - Risperdal: "Plant a Shill".... anyone know who Randy is?

To drive sales, Janssen paid doctors to speak at continuing medical education, or CME, programs about Risperdal, according to the documents. Janssenarmed them with slides touting its effectiveness, the documents show.

“Medical Services/Affairs has little input on speaker’s slides,” according to a January 2003 e-mail from Jeni Bastean, a Janssen executive. “The content of the Speakers Slide Kit is driven by marketing as they are promotional in nature.”

At a 2003 meeting, a Janssen executive praised the use of coached questioners at programs, according to a transcript. A doctor identified in the transcript as Randy told Janssen employees that he signed a letter agreeing he would only talk about permitted uses of Risperdal.

‘Plant a Shill’

“However, I always plant a shill because if I get asked a question from the audience, I can then speak off-label,” Randy said. “You never like to go to a CME meeting without knowing ahead of time that somebody is going to ask you, ‘what about dementia?’”

“That’s good practical advice,” replied Dr. Andrew Greenspan, an executive in Janssen’s medical affairs department, according to the transcript.


Much more at Bloomberg

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