University of Cincinnati psychiatry professor Henry Nasrallah received more than $100K from drug companies last year

November 24, 2010

The University of Cincinnati website describes schizophrenia researcher Henry Nasrallah as "an internationally recognized psychiatrist, educator and researcher."  Thanks to the work of the ProPublica news group, the University can now add "internationally recognized researcher compromised by pharmaceutical company influence."  

ProPublica, a public interest news agency, recently issued the report "Dollars for Docs," in which they identified 384 physicians who received more than $100,000 from one or more of the seven pharmaceutical companies which publish such information (such companies include Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer).  

Pharmaceutical companies may pay physicians for various reasons, such as for giving promotional speeches about a company's drug to groups of doctors or being a company's paid consultant. 

Nasrallah received more than $60,000 from Pfizer the last two quarters of 2009 for presenting "expert-led forums" and for related travel expenses. 

He received $41,920 from Astrazeneca in early 2010 for being a paid speaker on their behalf.

He received more than $6,000 from Johnson & Johnson in 2010 for speaking fees.

Nasrallah is not the first or only University of Cincinnati psychiatrist to have his financial conflicts of interests exposed:   Melissa Delbello, a pediatric research psychiatrist with the University of Cincinnati was cited by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee for her failure to disclose to the university how much she had earned from pharmaceutical companies. In 2002, she was the lead author of a study that concluded that children responded well to the antipsychotic drug Seroquel, which is manufactured by AstraZeneca.  She disclosed that she'd received $100,000 from the company between 2005 and 2007, but Finance Committee Ranking Member Senator Charles Grassley discovered it was more than double that: $238,000.

Which raises the question: Has Nasrallah accurately reported his pharma income to the University?