Dr. Bennett is the principal investigator for the only state-funded independent pharmaceutical safety program in the nation- the Southern Network on Adverse Reactions (SONAR)/the Doris Levkoff Meddin Center for Pharmaceutical Safety. The program has been funded by over $15 million in support from the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, the Department of Veterans Administration, a $5 million endowment from the state of South Carolina and the University of South Carolina, and two philanthropists from South Carolina. The program does not accept any funds from the pharmaceutical industry. SONAR evaluates the safety of pharmaceuticals and medical devices with annual sales of $1 billion or greater.
In the past decade, SONAR has identified 43 potentially fatal and previously unrecognized adverse drug or device reactions. The result has been improved safety information on product labels and savings of tens of thousands of lives; most (but not all) of the identified drugs or devices continued to have robust sales; at the same time, their safety profiles have been improved. An important finding in 2006 identified patients who experienced hypersensitivity and allergic reactions to coronary drug eluting stents. The initial finding was based on autopsies of four persons with sudden death, whose hearts were available for cardiac pathologist review. Finally, SONAR has reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine the first empirical data identifying conflicts of interest in pharmaceutical sponsored basic science research- a finding that mirrors that for clinical research.
