A BB&T

Martin Leon, MD, a cardiologist well-known for supporting drug-eluting stent technology, apparently spoke for it a little too soon at the American College of Cardiology conference.

The New York Times last month reported that the New England Journal of Medicine has banned Leon, for a period of five years, from reviewing research submissions to the journal and will not publish any of his commentaries. The Times picked up a story from an online source that said the NEJM was unhappy with Leon’s failure to abide by embargo on the release of COURAGE trial data, and that he revealed that he had been one of the reviewers of the journal’s publication of that data.

Leon made his comments on March 25, a Sunday, and the data was to have been rleased at the meeting the following Tuesday, toward the end of the conference, that timing apparently intended to make it a conference highlight. But following Leon’s comments, the report was disclosed publicly and it did then make national headlines, primarily because of its apparent criticism of a main-stay cardiovascular procedure.

As a further transgression, Leon was critical of the study, saying that COURAGE was “rigged to fail,” a comment that was reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Leon has not refuted the report concerning the NEJM ban, and staff at the journal declined comment, saying that it does not publicly discuss issues of this type.