Call for Independent Inquiry of Suicide in Clinical Trial at University of Minnesota
Posted by Jessica Cussins November 6, 2013
Biopolitical Times
On October 21, over 170 leading scholars from around the world submitted a letter to the University of Minnesota asking for a public, independent investigation of the 2004 gruesome suicide of 26-year-old Dan Markingson, a psychiatric research subject.
Researchers at the University enrolled Dan Markingson in an AstraZeneca-sponsored study of antipsychotic drugs despite it having been noted that the psychosis for which he was being treated at a state mental institution made him incapable of making his own medical decisions. His mother tried to get him out of the research study for months, warning the university that her son was exhibiting dangerous signs, but her pleas were ignored.
Why would the University of Minnesota avoid this basic responsibility toward her son? Why would it later file an action against her to recover costs, until she agreed not to appeal the court’s dismissal of her lawsuit against it? Disturbingly, a previous investigation into Markingson’s death by the St. Paul Pioneer Press revealed that psychiatrists at the university were paid significant amounts of money from the drug manufacturers who sponsored the study. Dr. Jerome Kassirer, a former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine stated, “There was an overt conflict of interest, and there is reason to believe that the boy's death was an indirect consequence of the financial inducements of the study.”
Carl Elliott, a professor in the Center for Bioethics and the Departments of Pediatrics and Philosophy at the University of Minnesota who has been advocating a thorough investigation for years, recently discussed the full extent of the conflicts of interest,
Writers at the pharmaceutical industry publication Pharmalot heard from Eva von Dassow, the vice chair of the University of Minnesota Faculty Senate. She said that she would request that the recent letter be brought before the Faculty Consultative Committee, and that she would urge the University to respond positively to it.
For more information about the case, see this Pharmalot article and these two detailed sites dedicated to investigating the death of Dan Markingson.
Previously on Biopolitical Times:
Researchers at the University enrolled Dan Markingson in an AstraZeneca-sponsored study of antipsychotic drugs despite it having been noted that the psychosis for which he was being treated at a state mental institution made him incapable of making his own medical decisions. His mother tried to get him out of the research study for months, warning the university that her son was exhibiting dangerous signs, but her pleas were ignored.
Why would the University of Minnesota avoid this basic responsibility toward her son? Why would it later file an action against her to recover costs, until she agreed not to appeal the court’s dismissal of her lawsuit against it? Disturbingly, a previous investigation into Markingson’s death by the St. Paul Pioneer Press revealed that psychiatrists at the university were paid significant amounts of money from the drug manufacturers who sponsored the study. Dr. Jerome Kassirer, a former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine stated, “There was an overt conflict of interest, and there is reason to believe that the boy's death was an indirect consequence of the financial inducements of the study.”
Carl Elliott, a professor in the Center for Bioethics and the Departments of Pediatrics and Philosophy at the University of Minnesota who has been advocating a thorough investigation for years, recently discussed the full extent of the conflicts of interest,
If the mutilated body of one of your research subjects is discovered in a blood-soaked bathroom, who should investigate the death? If you want to be cleared of blame, it’s useful if the investigation is led by a colleague from your own department. If you were being paid by a drug company to recruit that subject into a research study, it’s best if your colleague is getting a paycheck from the same company. Best-case scenario: your colleague is on the university’s “conflict of interest” committee, too, just in case anyone raises questions.This should not be the status quo. Such overt conflicts of interest threaten the ability of public universities to conduct high quality medical research. A full and independent inquiry into this problematic case could shed light both on conflicts of interest in university research, and on concerns about enrolling vulnerable patients in potentially harmful research studies.
Writers at the pharmaceutical industry publication Pharmalot heard from Eva von Dassow, the vice chair of the University of Minnesota Faculty Senate. She said that she would request that the recent letter be brought before the Faculty Consultative Committee, and that she would urge the University to respond positively to it.
For more information about the case, see this Pharmalot article and these two detailed sites dedicated to investigating the death of Dan Markingson.
Previously on Biopolitical Times: