This is a shame. And probably not all that uncommon. Dr. Drew Pinsky– your favorite celebrity rehab doctor and short-term counselor of reality teen moms– has been accused of accepting $275,000 from the pharmaceutical drug company GlaxoSmithKline in exchange for some pretty unethical promotion of their drug Wellbutrin. Who knew that the pharmaceutical industry was just a big ol’ business??? Deets inside.
The Washington Post has the full story:
A federal court complaint can be nettlesome even for those who are not charged, and in the Glaxo case, the probe has cast a kind of cloud over Pinsky’s credibility. It all tracks back to the late 1990s. In those days, Wellbutrin was being furtively promoted as a drug that could not only treat depression but also enhance a patient’s sex life and help with weight loss. The company’s sales representatives sometimes referred to Wellbutrin as the “happy, horny, skinny pill,” according to the Justice Department. In March and April 1999, according to receipts unearthed by federal investigators, Pinsky was paid a total of $275,000 by Glaxo Wellcome, the GlaxoSmithKline precursor that manufactured Wellbutrin.
The next month, he went on a national radio program, “David Essel — Alive!” A high-fiving public relations memo memorializes how Pinsky delivered for his corporate clients. Pinsky “communicated key campaign messages” on the show, the memo reads, chief among them the notion that Wellbutrin “is recommended for people experiencing a loss of libido.” The memo, though, is nothing compared with the transcript of the radio program that the feds included in the voluminous court record.
The program’s highlight is a claim by a 34-year-old woman who says she had 60 orgasms in a single night. The show’s host asks Pinsky: “What type of a medication would increase someone’s orgasmic potential, where they go from three or four to 60?” Pinsky responds that lots of antidepressants could do the trick, but the one he advocates is Bupropion or Wellbutrin because it “may enhance or at least not suppress sexual arousal” as much as other antidepressants. The transcript does not include any references to Pinsky’s deal with the drugmaker. The problem with making a claim about the drug’s supposed ability to juice a patient’s sexual performance is that Wellbutrin was approved for use in treating depression, not as a sexual enhancement.
Read more of the story here.
As of right now Dr. Drew is not charged with anything, but this information was made public after GlaxoKlineSmith corporation plead guilty to allegations of fraud (for advertising their products incorrectly and unethically). They are being forced to pay $3 billion, in the largest Health Care fraud settlement in American history. Since Dr. Drew was a part of that shady operation, he’s now involved.
I kind of hate when people say this, but I always knew there was something about that guy.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pinkisthenewblog/~3/-eXgh1WFuD0/
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