Great New York Times article on the pharmaceutical industry influence at Harvard Medical School.

But no one disputes that many individual Harvard Medical faculty members receive tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars a year through industry consulting and speaking fees.

Here’s proof that the industry is all up in the grill of patient-centric scientific recommendations. The body which makes recommendations on treating elevated cholesterol with drugs is the National Cholesterol Education Program, which publishes the Adult Treatment Panel guidelines (most recently ATP III) which are what we as physicians are supposed to use to decide which patients to treat (and we as medical school faculty are supposed to use to train Residents and Medical Students).

Of the nine doctors on the panel making the recommendations, eight receive money from pharmaceutical companies which sell cholesterol lowering drugs, most from several different companies.

Drs. Grundy, Merz, Brewer, Clark, Hunninghake, Pasternak, Smith, and Stone; you should be ashamed of yourselves. Grow some stones.