When did you meet Mickey?
2008
Where did you meet him?
He wrote to me by E-mail.
Memory of Mickey
Our first contact was somewhat fraught. An E-mail arrived from Mickey out of the blue. He reproduced the 2006 letter to The Wall Street Journal from Bob Rubin and myself that followed our exposing of the chair of Emory’s psychiatry department for undisclosed conflict of interest (inter alia). Mickey reproduced our letter to WSJ in his E-mail and added a snippy question: Didn’t you train (him)? I set Mickey straight and referred him to the correct people.
A silence of 18 months or so followed, then I stumbled upon the 1Boringoldman blog, began commenting there, and pretty soon we started up a regular dialogue. Along the way I was able to give Mickey some pointers about where or how to look for good information on KOL-COI issues and corporate shenanigans in the psychiatric drugs business. What I recall most about that period was Mickey’s remarkably rapid learning curve, not to mention his prodigious output. Also, though he was diffident at first, he quickly integrated with groups of experts to whom I introduced him, and he made serious contributions to our rolling informal seminars.
The culmination of Mickey’s transformation from psychoanalytically oriented practitioner to card carrying research analyst was, of course, his key role in the RIAT deconstruction of Glaxo Study 329. What he did was a tour de force.
Losing Mickey has for me been like losing a brother. We grew up professionally in the same era, so we had a great deal in common. I still get bothered on a daily basis when I realize that I can no longer share with him some juicy new gossip, or newly published article, or a new outrage, or just a fun piece.
May he rest in peace and may his archival work remain through his website.