Dear Sir/Madam,
I wish to complain that one of the authors of the National Addiction
Centre report on addiction to prescribed medicine, Professor John
Strang, had a conflict of interest in that he has a consultancy with
Genus Pharmaceuticals who manufacture lorazepam and oxazepam which are
benzodiazepine tranquillisers and the subject of the report.
Furthermore, Professor Strang made a false declaration when tendering
for commissioning of the report.
This would have influenced his judgement in the writing of the report.
I have since noticed on the Department of Health website that the NAC
report has had a “Statement of Interests” section added
retrospectively on 22 July 2011 making the situation even worse, with
a heading “Inadvertently omitted in original posting and hence added
on 22nd July 2011.”
This occurred following the initial disclosure of this conflict to
Chris Heffer, Director of Drugs and Alcohol Policy, Department of
Health, on 8 July 2011.
It states on the report that declarations are still outstanding for
four remaining authors and this shows that the declaration was not
prepared in the first place. Therefore it wasn’t “inadvertent” but a
deliberate decision to omit it in the first place.
Furthermore, all six authors would be aware that a declaration of
interest was required with any piece of research work and therefore
they were also party to the false declaration.
A proper declaration has still not been made stating that Genus
Pharmaceuticals manufacture lorazepam and oxazepam, benzodiazepine
tranquillisers which are the subject of the report.
Furthermore, you cannot make retrospective declarations anymore than
you can get a retrospective MOT if you’re caught without one.
The NAC report has been compromised by this breach of the Research
Councils UK policy and code of conduct on the governance of good
research conduct and the UK Research Integrity Office code of conduct
for research and its integrity cannot be retrieved by a retrospective
declaration.
I wish to complain regarding Professor Strang’s conduct in this matter
and will be happy to provide supporting evidence for these allegations
in electronic form.
I look forward to your reply.
Yours sincerely,
John Perrott