Radio Host Has Drug Company Ties
Seattle – Dr. Frederick Goodwin, a radio host for NPR, was and continues to be investigated for having ties to drug companies that were paying him to speak about specific drugs that they make. Among these companies, GlaxoSmithKline paid Dr. Goodwin more then $329,000 for talking about their drug Lamictal. Lamictal is a drug that helps to stabalize moods and Dr. Goodwin gave a promotional speech about the drug for the company which they in turn paid him $2500 to do.
Dr. Goodwin’s radio show producer claims to have had no idea that he was receiving money from drug companies and when he asked Dr. Goodwin he completely denied the allegation. However, Dr. Goodwin says that his producer did know about his ties to the drug companies and was not told it was going to be a problem.
Dr. Goodwin is the host of the radio show The Infinite Mind on NPR and the vice president has said that the radio show will be removed next week from the program line up. Dr. Goodwin was supposed to let the producers of his radio show know his relations with the drug companies. If he had let them know, NPR’s vice president says that they would have taken his show off the air sooner because it would have been a violation of the contract that Dr. Goodwin signed.
How much money that Dr. Goodwin has received is not completley known but they are estimating around $1.3 million has been given over the past 7 years. An investigation is continuing to hopefully find out how much money the doctor did receive and what he has done for these companies to receive this money. Senator Grassley is the lead investigator who uncovered what Dr. Goodwin was doing.
GlaxoSmithKline is not trying to deny that they paid Dr. Goodwin for promoting their drugs but they also say that if the blame is to be placed anywhere it is on him and not them. Dr. Goodwin recently talked about a drug for GlaxoSmithKline on his radio show for a bipolar medication. Dr. Goodwin stated on this show that there are certain medications that work for this disorder.
Mr. Grassley, the investigator of these ties, says he knows the companies of the drugs are paying doctors to help promote them but now they are getting their hands on journalism also to get even more word out about their drugs and what they do.
Why am I not surprised?
“Dr.” Goodwin’s (and I use “doctor” loosely, simply because he was conferred the degree) actions are simply just more of the same.
It is a sad state when one cannot even rely on the information provided to them by their supposedly better-informed health professional team.
Supposedly is the key word.
Did Dr. Goodwin ever mention in his radio addresses that Lamictal contains a black-box warning? Probably not.
this is what i am talking about,the situation is the patients receiving these medications and does anyone care about the side affects.i want to know why a parent would receive free medicaid because their chid is biplor and need this medication, so a lot of people are getting paid for pushing these drugs, they are no better than the street drug dealers. what is needed is medication to prevent these 12 and 14 year old girls, from having babies .boy and girl need a shot or pill inplant anything babies have got to stop having babies , so many boys have 4 or 5 different girls pregant a month , we wouldn’t have to worry about aboltions or abuse of babies and so many unwanted babies, so many homeless children, how can a baby support a baby. i know president elect obama will change this situation, the world will get a wake-up call, we can each make a change.