NPR Radio Host Has Big Pharma Ties

A New York Times expose of Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin, whose ties to Big Pharma were actually discovered by Sen. Charles Grassley, (R-IA). This is just the latest in a series of doctors and researchers whose ties to drug makers have been exposed by the Republican.

Goodwin hosts NPR's popular “The Infinite Mind” program. He earned at least $1.3 million between 2000 and 2007 giving marketing lectures for drug makers --- income not disclosed on the program.

Why the issue? Subjects on his shows have often touched on subjects, which the NY Times says, were "important to the commercial interests of the companies for which he consults."

You can see the conflict of interest. One such example:

In a program broadcast on Sept. 20, 2005, Dr. Goodwin warned that children with bipolar disorder who are left untreated could suffer brain damage, a controversial view. “But as we’ll be hearing today,” Dr. Goodwin reassured his audience, “modern treatments — mood stabilizers in particular — have been proven both safe and effective in bipolar children.”

That very day, GlaxoSmithKline paid Dr. Goodwin $2,500 to give a promotional lecture for its mood stabilizer drug, Lamictal, at the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Fla. Indeed, Glaxo paid Dr. Goodwin more than $329,000 that year for promoting Lamictal, records given Congressional investigators show.

NPR will be removing “The Infinite Mind” from its satellite radio service next week. NPR also indicated that had it been aware of Goodwin’s ties to Big Pharma, it would not have aired the program.

It should be noted that Goodwin has a list of impressive credentials: research professor of psychiatry at George Washington University, and also director of the Psychopharmacology Research Center and the Center on Neuroscience, Medical Progress, and Society at the George Washington University Medical Center.