U.S. researcher admits to leaking drug data
Wed Jan 30, 2008 2:02pm ET

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Texas researcher admitted he had leaked a
sensitive and controversial report about the heart risks of diabetes
drug Avandia to its maker, GlaxoSmithKline, days before the report was
due to be released, the journal Nature reported on Wednesday .

Steven Haffner of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San
Antonio admitted he tipped off the company, and a member of the U.S.
Congress quickly launched an investigation.

"Why I sent it is a mystery," Haffner is quoted by Nature as saying.

"I don't really understand it. I wasn't feeling well. It was bad
judgment.".............

...........Haffner was one of those asked by the journal to "peer-
review" the paper.

....These reviewers promise to keep the research confidential until it
is published.

Nature said Haffner faxed a copy of the study 17 days before it was
published to Alexander Cobitz, a Glaxo employee he knew from working
on an earlier clinical trial of the drug.......

...GSK representatives informed the Committee last summer that a peer
reviewer leaked the study to them weeks before it was published,"
Grassley wrote in a letter to the company.

"GSK later acknowledged to the Committee that the peer reviewer was
Dr. Haffner," he added.

"According to documents filed at the FDA, GSK has paid Dr. Haffner
around $75,000 in consulting fees and speaking honoraria since 1999.
Dr. Haffner told Committee investigators that no one at GSK asked him
to send them this study about Avandia," Grassley added.....

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Thanks Vince