TMAP - Texas Medication Algorithm Project (algorithm = guideline) is a
scam created by various drug companies. These companies are ripping
off Texas by promoting the most expensive new antipsychotics, Abilify,
Geodon, Risperdal, Seroqul and Zyprexa over the older cheaper
antipsychotics and also exported the scam to other states financially
burdening their Medicaid programs.

A 2005 study by the federal government's National Institute of Mental
Health showed that these new antipsychotic drugs, which cost roughly
10 times more than the older drugs, were no better and had just as
many side effects.

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Letters to the editor: firingline@dailytexanonline.com

Allegations halt drug recommendations
By Stephany Garza
8/25/08

The Texas Attorney General's Office has halted a guideline that lists
preferred psychiatric drugs for children in light of allegations of
drug companies influencing researchers.

UT researchers based the children's guideline on an adult version
called the Texas Medication Algorithm Project, which came under
scrutiny after the state of Texas filed a lawsuit in 2004 against the
pharmaceutical company Janssen. The suit alleges that Janssen provided
state mental health program decision makers with grants, trips, perks,
travel expenses and other payments. Companies also paid decision
makers to promote their medications.

The lawsuit states that some "proponents" who worked on the adult
project began to work on the children's version.

"[Janssen's] product, Risperdal, received a preferential
recommendation as a medication of choice on the [project] algorithms
used to treat children and adolescents," according to the lawsuit.
"Defendants' product did not have an FDA-approved indication for use
in children and adolescents when it was placed on the TCMAP
algorithms."

The research is state-funded but also includes money from private
sponsors. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, an arm of Johnson &
Johnson, donated $2.4 million for the initial creation of the Texas
Medication Algorithm Project. Johnson & Johnson is the parent company
of Janssen Pharmaceutica, maker of Risperdal. The program also
received $191,183 from Janssen, $146,500 from Pfizer and $103,000 Eli
Lily.

UT Pharmacy Dean Miles Crismon received grant support from at least 10
companies, including Eli Lily, Forest, Janssen and Shire, according to
the procedural manual of Schizophrenia Treatment Algorithms found on
the Department of State Health Services' Web site.

Crismon was not available for comment.

According to the court document, Janssen experienced an increase in
prescriptions and sales of Risperdal throughout Texas after it was
made the preferred drug through new programs in the state.

"TMAP and TCMAP proved to be powerful marketing tools for Risperdal,"
the lawsuit states. "Driven by these gains and revenues, defendants
turned to developing a concerted marketing plan to replicate these
programs, and the dramatic revenue and market share generated by TMAP
and its progeny in other states."

Whistle-blower Allen Jones worked as a state official for Pennsylvania
and discovered that the state's chief pharmacist pocketed money from
Janssen while designing a similar drug plan for Texas.

The Texas Attorney General's Office will not comment due to pending
litigation.

Because of restraints on information from officials and researchers,
there is only speculation that researchers who worked on the adult
health plan were paid by pharmaceutical companies, and the court
document mentions the possibility of a conflict of interest.

A spokesman on behalf of two researchers with the UT Southwestern
Medical Center at Dallas who worked on the children's project said
they were not influenced by drug companies. The anonymous spokesman
also said most of the researchers who worked on the children's version
of the state mental health plan were not involved with the adult plan.

The UT System required all four researchers who worked on the child
algorithm to fill out an extensive disclosure form about who supports
their work. All researchers mention financial support or work as a
consultant or speaker for a list of pharmaceutical companies,
according to publications separate from the children's algorithm
project.

Link:
http://media.www.dailytexanonline.com/media/storage/paper410/news/2008/08/25/TopStories/Allegations...