franiolek1
01.05.08, 22:10
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 1, 2008
CONTACT:
Nicole Rodgers 202-822-5200
Settlement Announced in Landmark Investigation of Lyme Disease
Diagnosis and Treatment Guidelines
Patients' Rights Groups Applaud Connecticut Attorney General
Blumenthal's Settlement in Anti-trust Case Against Powerful Medical
Society
Hartford, CT - Patients' rights groups today hailed Connecticut
Attorney
General Blumenthal's announcement of a settlement in a landmark
antitrust investigation into the Lyme treatment guidelines of the
Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).
"My office uncovered undisclosed financial interests held by several
of the most powerful IDSA panelists," said Blumenthal. "The IDSA's
guideline panel improperly ignored, or minimized, consideration of
alternative medical opinion and evidence regarding chronic Lyme
disease, potentially raising serious questions about whether the
recommendations reflected all relevant science."
The groundbreaking settlement announced today forces a complete
review of the IDSA guidelines by a new panel free from conflicts of
interest, specifically excluding previous panel members. This panel
will consider a range of scientific evidence in a public forum
broadcast live over the internet and will be overseen by a
specialist
in financial conflicts of interest in medicine.
"This settlement makes it clear that the IDSA guideline development
process was corrupted by a commercially driven panel that excluded
evidence supporting longer term treatment of Lyme disease," said
attorney Lorraine Johnson, Executive Director of the California Lyme
Disease Association (CALDA). "This settlement allows suppressed
scientific viewpoints and evidence to be heard, and it is promising
news for patients."
This is the first-ever antitrust investigation against a medical
society's guidelines development process.
"We congratulate Attorney General Blumenthal for exposing the IDSA's
conflicts of interest and helping reduce the suffering of Lyme
patients everywhere," said Pat Smith, president of the national Lyme
Disease Association (LDA). "The IDSA guidelines are dangerous for
patients who suffer longer-term Lyme symptoms that do not fall
within
the IDSA's narrow disease definition."
The IDSA guidelines are treated as mandatory within the medical
community. More than 50 physicians who use longer-term treatment
approaches have been investigated or sanctioned by state medical
boards. The guidelines can also result in financial problems for
patients, since insurance companies refuse to reimburse for longer-
term treatment and pharmacies may refuse to fill prescriptions.
The majority of individuals involved in the IDSA guidelines
development process held direct or indirect commercial interests
related to Lyme vaccines, patents, and/or test kits, and did not
take
the opinions or experiences of the competing Lyme groups into
account.
While the announcement of a settlement comes as a huge relief to
suffering Lyme patients, the case has much broader implications for
a
health care system that often contends with conflicts-of- interest
in
guideline processes - guidelines which are often used by insurance
companies to limit diagnosis and treatment options.
"Today's settlement marks an important victory for all patients who
suffer Lyme disease, but it is also a victory for anyone concerned
about health care," said Johnson. "Commercially driven guidelines
that limit patient treatment options are a major issue today in
healthcare, and this decision marks an important step towards
addressing it."
The national Lyme Disease Association, (LDA), CALDA, and Time for
Lyme are non-profit organizations that were founded by individuals
who had personal experience with Lyme disease, in order to address
the lack of education and support services available for this newly
emerging infection.
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