BLOGSCAN - The Over-Selling of Seroquel

The anonymous blogger on the Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry blog has been hard at work on the story of how research on Seroquel (quetiapine, by AstraZeneca) was manipulated and oversold. His latest effort is here. Once again, a major theme is how a "key opinion leader," that is, a prominent medical academic lavishly paid as a consultant or speaker, became overly enthusiastic about his employer's product. Unforunately, academic medicine is now rife with well-paid key opinion leaders. I suspect many may have cause in the future to feel sheepish about their former enthusiasms. Meanwhile, beware marketers in academics' clothing.