U.K. Psychiatrist struck off medical register for serious misconduct reinvents career in the U.S.: Tonmoy Sharma

Tonmoy Sharma as written about in this 2008 article was a "psychiatrist who regularly appeared as an expert on the BBC has been struck off the medical register after he lied about his academic qualifications and performed unethical drugs tests on mentally ill patients".


"..was found to have acted unprofessionally in relation to five major studies between 1997 and 2003, involving four leading pharmaceutical companies including Eli Lilly and the Janssen Research Foundation.

He also misled the companies when he chose to use identical patients in different studies, subjecting them to MRI scans and tests that had not been approved by an ethics committee. In 2003, he recruited mental health patients in unsolicited telephone calls and without consent from their doctors. He then failed to give them proper information about the trials - one schizophrenic was simply handed a leaflet."


Sharma reinvented himself in the U.S. via a drug rehabilitation facility in San Clemente, CA.

Update on Tonroy Sharma today at Pharmagossip has me shaking my head in disbelief, regarding how such blatent disregard for human beings by people who care for the most vulnerable in society--are able to position themselves with pharmaceutical companies in drug trials, research and ultimately in direct care of patients themselves.

Patients in such vulnerable conditions such as mental health and rehab needs are not often able to do a quick background search on their care providers and in this case...one is needed in my opinion. Stories like these fuel my skepticism of the entire psychiatry industry.


Update found via Pharmagossip blog

Captain Larry Smith sits with Dr. Tonmoy Sharma of Sovereign Health Recovery Center to discuss the effects of addiction on the brain.

http://www.beachcitiesradio.com/on-air/tuesday/the-boarding-pass

Peter Jay, chief executive of a British private investigative agency that focuses on reducing fraud in clinical trials, said he was surprised and disappointed that Sharma was running a treatment facility, even if his role is purely administrative."I don't have a problem with people who do wrong in their life and rehabilitate and start doing right," said Jay of MedicoLegal Investigations Ltd. "But what he did showed a totally outrageous disregard for people, a total disrespect for sick people."MedicoLegal was hired to investigate Sharma by Sanofi-Aventis, a pharmaceutical company that contracted Sharma to conduct research studies in 1999."He should not be allowed anywhere near (patients) under any circumstances," Jay said in an e-mail to The Register

http://articles.ocregister.com/2010-08-20/news/24644891_1_medical-license-mentally-ill-patients-general-medical-council