I just learned that Dr. Martin Keller, principal investigator of the controversial Paxil study 329, has retired from his position as a professor of psychiatry at Brown University — see here. As Pharmalot notes, Keller quietly retired June 30 in the midst of an ongoing campaign to have the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry retract the Paxil study he led while chair of psychiatry at Brown; this study and Keller’s role in it was a major focus of my book, Side Effects, published in 2008 and which I’ve blogged about since — see here and here.

A Brown spokesman declined to elaborate on why Keller retired when he did, but it seems clear the timing is linked to the growing pressure to retract study 329 in the wake of GlaxoSmithKline’s $3 billion settlement with U.S. Department of Justice over claims that the study was misleading and fraudulent — see here and here.

Now it remains to be seen whether the journal will acknowledge the extensive evidence that study 329, published in 2001, contained major errors and omissions and retract it.

Hat tip to Paul Thacker for alerting me to news of Keller’s retirement.