TeenScreen's Evil Sister - TMAP in HOT WATER

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TeenScreen's Evil Sister in HOT WATERFri, 9 Mar 2007 12:42:06 -0500TeenScreen's Evil Sister - TMAP, Texas Medication Algorithm (guidelines)Project is a plan concocted by drug companies to influence governmentofficials to push the newest most expensive antipsychotic drugs:Abilify, Geodon, Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa.. See below storycourtesy of the American Psychiatric Association.Both TMAP and TeenScreen were "recommended" by the President's NewFreedom Commission on Mental Health.Both are going to go down with a thud but your help is needed.Below is what TeenScreen does NOT want you to do as they elaborate here:http://dailykenoshan.com/images/news/ts/responding.pdfWrite Letters. To the local school board. To area school principals. Tothe local paper. To anyone who will listen.Attend Local Meetings. Express your opinions at local community forums,such as school board meetings or town hall meetings.Make Web Sites and Blogs. TeenScreen says: "information proliferated bythese groups remains on their own Web sites and Web logs, or blogs. Itis when members of your community find these sites that the informationthese groups disseminate becomes problematic." Blogs are easy and free.How many blogs mention TeenScreen? Search here:http://blogsearch.google.com <http://blogsearch.google.com/> There'smany easy ways to make a blog. Here's one way:http://www.blogger.com/start_____<http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/index.dtl> Psychiatric Newshttp://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/42/3/30Psychiatric NewsLegal NewsCompany Accused of Improprieties in Marketing RisperdalJim RosackThe Texas attorney general says TMAP was just one part of an elaboratemarketing scheme to increase psychotropic drug sales.The Texas state attorney general joined a whistleblower lawsuit thispast December accusing the pharmaceutical and consumer goods giantJohnson and Johnson inc. of exaggerating the benefits and minimizing theknown adverse effects associated with its second-generationantipsychotic Risperdal (risperidone), marketed by subsidiary JanssenL.P.The suit further alleges the company and its subsidiaries "improperlyinfluenced" at least one Texas state mental health program officialthrough the payment of "substantial financial contributions" aimed atensuring a preferred position for Risperdal during the development andimplementation of the Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP).The lawsuit was originally filed in 2004 by Allen Jones, a formeremployee in Pennsylvania's Office of the Inspector General (OIG). as anOIG investigator, Jones had investigated allegations of improprietyduring Pennsylvania's efforts to implement PENNMAP, a slightly modifiedversion of TMAP.As a result of Johnson and Johnson's alleged improper influence of stateofficials through illegal payments of significant sums of money, thelawsuit claims that Risperdal became a widely prescribed "preferred"first-line medication in the TMAP and PENNMAP algorithms for thetreatment of schizophrenia.To assure Risperdal a first-line spot in the algorithms, the suitalleges that Johnson and Johnson overstated Risperdal's effectiveness intreating patients with schizophrenia and downplayed the drug's sideeffects. The suit states that the company also manipulated datacollected during development of TMAP, so that Risperdal would appear tobe more effective and safer than it actually was.As a result of Risperdal's preferred position in TMAP, the state mentalhealth and Medicaid programs were said to have paid "dollars per pill"for Risperdal when it could have paid "pennies per pill" for genericfirst-generation antipsychotics that were equally effective.Neither Johnson and Johnson nor Janssen responded to inquiries byPsychiatric News for this article.Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott was quoted by the AustinAmerican-Statesman newspaper as saying, "We believe Texas has beendefrauded of some money, and we're going to be looking to get our moneyback."Stephanie Goodman, a spokesperson for The Texas Health and HumanServices Commission, defended TMAP's development and implementation. TheTMAP algorithms, she said in a prepared statement, are "firmly groundedin the latest research and science."The central issue in the lawsuit is the pharmaceutical company's allegedimproper involvement in the development and implementation of TMAP.Developed in 1997, TMAP is composed of a series of flow charts that leadphysicians through evidence-based decision trees to help them determinewhich psychotropic medication is most appropriate for patients withspecific mental illnesses (Psychiatric News, August 6, 2004). As aresult of a series of consensus conferences that included noted expertsin each field, separate TMAP algorithms were developed for adultpatients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression.After the adult algorithms were completed, Texas state employees begandevelopment of the Texas Children's Medication Algorithm Project, whichthe lawsuit alleges was also unduly influenced by Johnson and Johnson.Development of TMAP cost the state of Texas a reported $5.6 million;however, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (founded by a Johnson familymember and a former comapny executive) gave the state $1.8 million inthe form of "unrestricted educational grants" toward the development ofthe algorithms.In addition to those grants, the lawsuit alleges, Johnson and Johnsonimproperly influenced an unnamed "Texas mental health program decisionmaker" by paying that individual to promote the placement of Risperdalas a first-line medication in the TMAP schizophrenia algorithm.Johnson and Johnson allegedly also paid the state official to furtherpromote the TMAP program by funding trips to various states, includingPennsylvania, to promote the adoption of TMAP. As a result of thoseactivities, the suit claims, 16 other states, in addition to Texas,formally adopted TMAP or a closely related version of the algorithms.The lawsuit asks for a jury trial. No trial date has been set._____20,173 Total Signatures<http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html>http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html

 

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