From ABC News:
The cardiologist who raised alarms about Avandia is saying a smear campaign has been organized against him by a top FDA rep.
Dr. Steven Nissen, chairman of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, showed ABC News an e-mail sent to reporters by Douglas Arbesfeld, a senior communications consultant to the FDA.
According to the ABC report, the e-mail's title is "What are St. Steven's feet made of? Clay, perhaps?" It was forwarded to reporters with a critical news article which included an anonymous blog accusing Nissen of playing favorites among drug companies.As I was reading the reply, I actually had an "LOL" moment as I read: "Arbesfeld, who is among the FDA's top spokesmen, acknowledged sending the e-mail to a handful of reporters but denied he was attempting to impugn Nissen's reputation. "
Riiiight. No, not at all. Let's see ... email allegedly sent from an FDA email account, a link to an anonymous blog post which has a drive by allegation of favoritism by Dr. Nissen (favoritism at the FDA perhaps??). No, the denial is most plausible. And I can sing tenor.
Source here.
