Posted on 12/05/2005 2:27:17 PM PST by billorites
CHICAGO - Parents who paid $285 for an experimental head lice treatment for their children might be scratching their own heads, now that the doctor selling the stuff says it‘s really a skin cleanser available for under $10 a bottle at drug stores nationwide.
And as of this weekend, his Web site still said the costly treatment was only available at his Menlo Park, Calif., office.
The letter "kind of blows the cover," said University of Minnesota medical ethicist Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, who called Pearlman‘s failure until now to disclose his product‘s true identity ethically troubling.
Leonard Fleck, a Michigan State University medical ethicist, said Pearlman‘s lack of disclosure in the original study made it impossible for other scientists to test his methods.
Pearlman acknowledged that he didn‘t disclose the information until now "because I wanted to get rich" and had hoped pharmaceutical companies would offer him money to further develop a Cetaphil-based product for head lice. When that didn‘t happen, he says, he decided to write the letter.
He would not say how many patients had sought the treatment or how much money he‘d made on it since his study was published. He said they were given bottles of Nuvo and were told the treatment was part of his research, but were not told they were getting Cetaphil.
Diagnostic testing makes the in-office price worth it, Pearlman said.
"We‘ll obviously look into it," Petersen said.
A spokeswoman for the California Medical Board said they have no public record of any disciplinary action against Pearlman, but that complaints and investigations are not public information.
However, said Lucey, "You‘ve got to give him points for writing" to set the record straight.
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It's that Jungian thing..you know the dualtiy of man sort of thing...that Jungian thing.
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