NPR Producer: Goodwin Broke "Ironclad" Contract Over GSK Cash; Pitts Didn't Disclose Ties

(MoneyWatch)  The producer of an NPR radio show has accused the show's host, Fred Goodwin, of breaking his contract by failing to disclose his ties to drug companies.

The producer also denies that Peter Pitts, a former FDA official and an executive at Manning, Selvage & Lee, a PR firm that represents pharmaceutical companies, informed producers of his financial ties to drug companies when he appeared as a guest on the show.

The show, The Infinite Mind, was hosted by Fred Goodwin. It ran into controversy when it was revealed that an episode on antidepressants featured experts who had taken money from drug companies that make antidepressants. The show discussed the link between antidepressants and suicide, and the experts largely downplayed those worries. The show had been funded in part by a grant from Eli Lilly, maker of Prozac and Cymbalta. (Lilly says it had no editorial control over the show.)

Following the controversy, the show was yanked from NPR's satellite radio lineup and has since been cancelled altogether. Goodwin, meanwhile, went on a line-by-line counterattack on the blogs of Pharmalot and Daniel Carlat, both of which had given coverage the the affair.

On March 7, Infinite Mind producer Bill Lichenstein added to the fight with a comment on BNET Pharma in which he accused his former colleague of breaking an "ironclad" contract reveal any conflicts of interest:

The bottom line is that he accepted $1.2 million in speaking fees from GlaxoSmithKline and didn't disclose them, despite an ironclad contract with the public radio show mandating that he reveal any potential conflicts of interest.

... as executive producer of The Infinite Mind, I was not the producer of the episode in question. But with regard to our failure to disclose the pharmaceutical connections of one guest, Peter Pitts, Pitts was a guest on the show due to his being a former FDA official. We were not aware, nor was PBS's NewsHour nor NPR, when they had Pitts on as a guest, of his pharmaceutical PR ties.

That stands in contrast to Pitts' own assertion, also on BNET Pharma, that he did disclose his ties to drug company clients:

When I was asked to appear on "The Infinite Mind," I told the producer about all my affiliations -- as I always do. ... MS&L does no work at all for either GSK or Pfizer -- and the work for Lilly is 100% in diabetes.

Side note: There's a slight "Rashomon" aspect as to whether Pitts disclosed his ties to MS&L and drug companies. It should not have mattered, however. Although Pitts was an FDA executive, he is now better known as a pro-industry voice and his clients are not a secret. The only reason Pitts is famous enough to make it onto radio shows is because he is tied to these companies. The mistake here was the show's failure to do a simple internet search and disclose Pitts' current job, not with whether Pitts mentioned his job prior to the interview. If you've ever met Pitts you'll know that of all the things you can accuse him of, operating in a subtle, sub rosa fashion is not one of them.

• See BNET's previous coverage of this issue:
• Goodwin, Biederman on Counter-Attack in Drug Funding Transparency Scandal
• Fred Goodwin Loses NPR Gig Over GlaxoSmithKline Ties
• BNET Focus on Antidepressants: Part 2, Controversies