Back on September 30, 2007, Katie Couric interviewed Dr Joseph Biederman, whose research Dr Kifuji has said influenced her, in a 60 Minutes segment tiled "What Killed Rebecca Riley?"
When questioned about the rise in young children with bipolar disorder, Biederman told Couric: "The average age of onset is about four."
"It's solidly in the preschool years," he stated.
The results of an investigation led by Senator Charles Grassley, on behalf of the Senate Finance Committee, revealed that between 2000 to 2007, Biederman earned at least $1.6 million from drug companies but failed to report at least $1.4 to Harvard University.
On February 26, 2009, Biederman was questioned under oath in a deposition for litigation titled, In re Risperdal/Seroquel/Zyprexa Litigation, Case Code 274, Alma Avila as next friend of Amber Avila versus Johnson & Johnson Company et al, in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Middlesex County.
At one point, when questioned about his participation in medical education events as a paid speaker, he blamed a decline in invitations to speak over the past year on Grassley's investigation and inferred that the investigation was brought on by media hype over Rebecca's death.
When asked if he had any idea why he received fewer invitations, Biederman said: "There has been some accusations by Senator Grassley about issues of conflict of interest; and while the investigation is going on, I agreed not to speak."
"What is the nature of Senator Grassley's investigation of you?" attorney, Fletch Trammell, asked.
"Senator Grassley read, there was an article in The Boston Globe about a little girl in town that the parents are accused of first-degree murder," Biederman noted.
"In fact, you may have seen it," he told the attorney.
"The accusation has been upgraded from second-degree to first-degree murder," he pointed out.
"But because the child was diagnosed with bipolar illness, it captured the imagination of the media and there was an article in The Boston Globe that talked about the diagnosis and how controversial that is and particularly as it pertains to preschoolers," Biederman continued.
"And in the article the reporter got — I sent my standard disclosure forms, so he wrote that I have extensive relationships with fifteen or so pharmaceutical companies," he stated.
"So Senator Grassley wrote a letter to the institution, to Harvard and Mass. General, asking for details," he said. "And that has been the cascade of events."
"So Senator Grassley became interested in you because of these people who were accused of killing their kid?" the attorney asked Biederman.
"Senator Grassley claims to be interested in issues of conflict of interest and is interested in making sure that the universities have tight conflict-of-interest rules," Biederman said. "I have no dispute with that."
"What interactions have you had with Senator Grassley or his staff?" the attorney asked.
"None," Biederman stated. "Senator Grassley's interactions are with Mass. General and with Harvard, not with me directly."
Biederman said the hospital was paying a law firm to represent him in the matter of Grassley's investigation and for the deposition.
He acknowledged having a professional relationship with Janssen, Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca and Pfizer, the makers of atypical antipsychotics. "I have a professional relationship with dozens of manufacturers," Biederman said.
"In the course of carrying out these relationships with all these drug manufacturers, does the relationship always involve them giving you money?" the attorney asked.
"Most of the time," Biederman replied.
On March 27, 2009, the New York Times reported that, "Federal prosecutors have issued a subpoena seeking information about the work and statements of three prominent Harvard researchers who have been the focus of a Congressional investigation into conflicts of interest in medicine."
The researchers, Doctors Joseph Biederman, Thomas Spencer and Timothy Wilens "are named in the subpoena, which was sent … to Fletch Trammel, a lawyer who represents state attorneys general in lawsuits that claim makers of antipsychotic drugs defrauded state Medicaid programs by improperly marketing their medicines," the Times noted.
Up until June 10, the researchers and doctors in the field of psychiatry identified by Grassley's investigation included Charles Nemeroff from Emory University; Melissa DelBello at the University of Cincinnati; Alan Schatzberg, president of the American Psychiatric Association, from Stanford University; Martin Keller at Brown University; Karen Wagner and Augustus John Rush from the University of Texas; and Fred Goodwin, the former host of the radio show, "Infinite Minds," broadcast for years by National Pubic Radio.
But on June 10, the name Zachary Stowe was added to the list, with a Wall Street Journal headline: "Emory Psychiatrist Cited in Conflicts of Interest."
"Emory University has disciplined a prominent psychiatrist who was being paid by an antidepressant maker at the same time he was conducting federal research about the use of such drugs in pregnant women," the Journal wrote.
Stowe is the director of the "Women's Mental Health Program" at Emory. Its website says the focus his "clinical research is the use of psychotropic medications during pregnancy and lactation, the psychobiology of mood disorders during pregnancy and the postpartum period, and the impact of maternal mental illness on fetal and neonatal exposures."
The latest off-label marketing scheme in the works involves federal legislation expected to come up for a vote soon in the US Senate called the Mothers Act. This one involves a plan to screen all pregnant women for a long list of pregnancy related "mood" and "anxiety" disorders.
After covering the Pharma's off-label marketing schemes using mental illness screening scams since mid-2004, beginning with TeenScreen, the Mothers Act is no different than the others, aside from the fact that a whole new treatment industry was built up around it, and more profiteers are involved. But then, Pharma could hardly expect to keep selling drugs through middle-man pushers forever, while keeping the massive profits to itself.
Amy Philo, the leader of "Unite for Life," a coalition of 50 groups against the bill, warns that the Mother's Act is: "Trolling for Mental Patients in a Maternity Ward Near You:"
"If you've never been 'Teen Screened' in high school, quizzed by a college counselor about your potential perfectionism, mood swings, or alcohol use- or told you might go crazy if you don't start taking drug x, consider yourself among the fortunate, fading few.
"Imagine yourself pushing a baby into the world in a hospital somewhere in America only to be greeted by a friendly, neighborhood-psychological-screener the very moment baby begins munching down on his first meal.
"Would either of you like a DSM-IV Mental Disorder diagnosis code with that milk?"
