As many physicians already know there are many ways they can augment their income with their extracurricular activities outside of
their practices. Drug companies tend to hire the most-respected and

accomplished physicians and researchers in their fields for the crucial

job of lecturing about the advantages of their drugs. In getting the

word out, sometimes the risks aren’t covered quite as well. The

consequences are significant for patients, who become the new targets

for exposure to new heavily marketed drugs — the billion-dollar

blockbusters with dangerous and noted, but unstudied side effects (ex:

Merck’s NSAID Vioxx).

Disclosures from just seven companies, Lilly, Cephalon, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co. and Pfizer
reveal over $257 million in payouts since 2009 to physicians for

speaking tours, etc. Although that number is incomplete by itself, the

real figure is also much higher as many of the other 70 drug companies

don’t yet disclose what they pay. In the US at least, many physicians

have not behaved legally in stumping for Big-Pharma with scores of cases

cited for misconduct and even a few for malpractice.

Dr. Randy Schapiro and Dr. Mark Freedman are two such speakers, part of the industry’s white-coat sales force, paid to advertise Big-Pharma
brand names to their colleagues under the guise of professional

development conference speakers. In so doing, the lines between

marketing and science become completely blurred or even erased. As most

MS patients who spend time on the social blogs know, these two

physicians have been tough critics of the CCSVI hypothesis.

Dr. Schapiro, President of the Schapiro Multiple Sclerosis Advisory Group, is also critical of the process that singles him out as having
received payments from Big-Pharma (the records show he received about

$306,000 in payments from companies such as Pfizer, CSL Behring and

Accorda Therapeutics last year) stating: “I know colleagues who have

taken payments and they’re not on the list.” He further stated that

muchof the money paid for clinical research on drugs treating multiple

sclerosis. “The money never went to me — it went to my office and paid

for my overhead. I have no idea where that number came from.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Mark Freedman, head of University of Ottawa’s MS program has disclosed financial relationships with Bayer HealthCare
Pharmaceuticals and Genzyme Corporation. He has served as an advisor or

consultant for Bayer HealthCare, Biogen Idec Inc, EMD Serono, Inc,

sanofi-aventis, Teva Neuroscience, and Novartis Pharma. Interestingly,

Novartis has just released Gilenia, a new MS medication that is

publicized to “shake up the global MS market” and is forecast to bring

in new sales of $3.5 billion annually.

Both Freedman and Schapiro who speak and write frequently in opposition to the CCSVI hypothesis on behalf of MS Societies and
presumably other interests, are opposed to any spending whatsoever on

CCSVI research. Says Freedman: “there are going to be millions of

dollars spent now to follow a hoax.”

This is the same message that Dr. Schapiro recently promoted when he spoke to a group of physicians and healthcare professionals on behalf of
the Manitoba Chapter of the MS Society in Winnipeg. “I think it’s

malarkey to spend any money to find out if CCSVI is a viable therapy for

MS,” and added that (as a treatment) it’s in the same category as the

past failures of “pregnant cow’s milk, cobra venom, hyperbaric oxygen

mercury amalgams, bee stings, and goat serum”.

In engaging Dr. Schapiro for their October 18th Professional Conference, the MS Society of Manitoba billedhim as a topical speaker
who would “differentiate plausible treatments from implausible

treatments”. At no time did they disclose any potential conflict of

interest that Dr. Schapiro, as someone in a position to control the

content of their topic might have, something they are obliged to do.

Pro Publica, (the journal in the public interest), has launched a multi-article series examining the high-stakes pursuit of the nation’s
physicians and their prescription pads by the pharmaceutical industry.

(first installment at: http://www.propublica.org/article/dollars-to-doctors-physician-disciplinary-records).

The series will link the pharmaceutical industry to physicians in a way

that is little-known by the public & expose the fact that

physicians frequently learn their most-practiced therapies directly from

the drug companies & as a reward for prescribing medications, are

sometimes chosen for the speaker’s tour for keeping their prescription

levels up.

http://ccsviclinic.ca/?p=692