He sponsored dance therapy programs and donated musical equipment through the Ralph and Elsie Somerfield Arts Enrichment Fund.
The news comes as scientists, hospitals and companies sponsoring gene therapy experiments have been working to assure the public of the safety of the experiments after the death of a patient in a gene experiment at the University of Pennsylvania last year.
Only later did it become clear that the scientific data suggesting efficacy were far from definitive; by 2002, a large study of hormone replacement therapy sponsored by the National Institutes of Health had to be abruptly stopped because of serious side effects, and experts counseled against estrogen for chronic disease.
It could not be further removed from the drug-based treatments for mental disorder which have turned the drugs industry into one of the most profitable in the UK, or from cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), the government-sponsored therapy of choice – 6,000 CBT therapists to be trained over the next four years.
In November 2008, the band members, Edwyn, James, Steven Daly and David McClymont were reunited for the first time in 25 years, to pick up an award, sponsored by the music therapy charity, Nordoff Robbins, in Glasgow recognising the impact they made on music at the time, and its reverberations down the years.
Now, researchers have tested a similar therapy in a larger trial sponsored by the biotech company Bluebird Bio.
Although previous research with nicotine replacement therapy has shown that industry sponsored trials were more likely than other trials to report outcomes that were favourable to the study sponsor, 14 we did not find any evidence for differences in depression and suicidal ideation for industry versus non industry sponsored trials (P=0.386 and P=0.380, respectively, for interaction).
The study in which the subject died is one of two clinical trials sponsored by Targeted Genetics Corp. (Seattle, WA, USA), a gene therapy company (Table 2).
I was keen to know more about the therapy, so Ben put me in touch with Professor Michael Mithoefer who has been practising MDMA therapy for the past 10 years in trials in South Carolina sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (Maps).
"You can also see some smaller publications doing great native advertising work with major brands – for example, Apartment Therapy is one of the top drivers of sponsored posts when sorted by sharing on Pinterest," he said.
