Zachary Stowe Wants His GSK Money

From http://www.margaretsoltan.com/?p=13846

Zachary Stowe: I WANT MY MONEY

Professor Zachary Stowe of Emory University wants his money, and he wants it now.

An enthusiastic salesman for Glaxo drugs, Stowe spends a great deal of time giving pitches to various audiences. He doesn’t just say things Glaxo wants to hear; he writes them.

“Dr. Stowe is on board for publicity efforts,” writes a public relations person to Glaxo about a press release. “We [want] to secure distribution [of research results] on Emory letterhead — as you know, [this will] provide further credibility to data for the media.”

Stowe loves the money; Glaxo loves the credibility Emory’s letterhead brings. A perfect relationship, undisclosed to Emory, of course…

Actually, not entirely perfect. Tension occasionally flares between the parties when one or another of Stowe’s promotional talks has to be canceled. Stowe’s policy when this happens is to demand payment in full anyway. He’s an important man. If he’d known the thing would be canceled, he could have made a lot of money at other sales events. He and his Emory letterhead are very much in demand.

Senator Grassley attaches to his latest letter to Emory about its enterprising psychiatry professors a series of emails Stowe wrote demanding payment for canceled events.

Email #1: What provisions do you propose for my compensation for the lost time? …. GSK… should cover the cost of the trip as well.

Email #2: I am willing to discuss… renumeration [sic] for a single talk ($2,500) rather than the two scheduled.

Email #3: [Same idea. Still no response.]

Email #4: Now that I have had to invest the time to find some resolution to this problem, I am no longer in a compromising mood. [Now you owe me] $4,500.

Email #5: I do not want to be a prick, but given the time and frustration, [you] should pay me for both talks.