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Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Pharma cos fund WHO flu doctors

Vested Interests Behind Move To Push H1N1 Vaccine?

 Even as questions are being raised about whether the swine flu scare was exaggerated to benefit pharmaceutical companies, evidence has surfaced showing that several members of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) vaccine board which pushed countries to buy the H1N1 vaccine have had significant financial ties with various pharmaceutical companies. 

    This fact, which is bound to raise significant issues of conflict of interest, was exposed by the Danish daily newspaper Information last month. TOI attempted to get WHO's response to the expose, but several emails sent to the office of the Director General of the WHO on January 9 have met with no response. 
    Documents acquired through the Danish Freedom of Information Act revealed that Prof Juhani Eskola, a Finnish member of the WHO board on vaccines, Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE), received almost € 6.3 million in 2009 for his vaccine research programme,THL,from vaccine manufactures, GSK, quali
fying GSK as THL's main source of income. SAGE advises WHO director-general Margaret Chan and recommends which vaccines and how much of it member countries should purchase for the pandemic, pointed out the Danish paper. 
    However, Professor Eskola is not alone. Danish journalists reported on six other members of SAGE with financial ties to various pharmaceutical companies. They include Dr 
Peter Figueroa, Dr Neil Ferguson, Prof Malik Peiris, Dr Arnold Monto, Dr Friedrich Hayden and Dr Albert Osterhaus.Barring Dr Figueroa,who revealed that he had accepted a research grant from Merck,none of the others made any disclosures. 
    Many pharma firms, like GSK, Novartis,Solvay,Baxter,MedImmune and Sanofi Aventis, with which the vaccine board members had ties are also makers of vaccines, including the H1N1 vaccine. None of the WHO members, barring one, declared any conflict of interest despite having financial ties with the firms in the form of research grants and consultancies. 
    In a statement on December 3, WHO claims that numerous safeguards are in place to manage possible conflicts of interest. "Members of SAGE are required to declare all professional and financial interests, including funding received from pharma firms or consultancies or other forms of professional engagement with pharma companies.'' 

FALSE ALARM? 
Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) advises WHO director-general Margaret Chan which vaccines and what quantities countries should purchase 
SAGE member Juhani Eskola received almost 6.3m euros in 2009 for his vaccine research programme from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 
6 other members of SAGE had financial ties to various pharma companies. Only 1 revealed that he had accepted a research grant from Merck 
Dr Wolfgang Wodarg, head of health at Council of Europe, has alleged that swine flu was a 'false pandemic' driven by drug companies 
Was swine flu a 'false pandemic'? 
    The World Health Organisation had claimed that "the names and affiliations of members of SAGE (experts' group) and of SAGE working groups are published on the WHO web site, together with meeting reports and declarations of interest submitted by the experts. Allegations of undeclared conflicts of interest are taken very seriously by WHO, and are immediately investigated''. However, there is no such disclosure by these SAGE members on the WHO website. 
    The accusation of Dr Wolfgang Wodarg, head of health at the Council of Europe, that the swine flu outbreak was a 'false pandemic' driven by drug companies that made billions of dollars from creating a worldwide scare has added fuel to this controversy. Dr Wodarg is quoted as saying: "They have made them squander tight healthcare resources for inefficient vaccine strategies and needlessly exposed millions of healthy people to the risk of unknown side-effects of insufficiently tested vaccines.'' 
    Despite the huge pandemic scare created by the WHO officials, less than 1% people infected with swine flu died as the disease swept through the world. Several European governments have admitted to being stuck with a huge surplus of H1N1 vaccines worth millions. The UK government has stated that it faced wasting millions of pounds if it was unable to get out of the huge orders for vaccines placed with the pharmaceutical giant GSK. The UK is already reportedly considering selling or giving away millions of doses. Several other countries, including France, have already announced plans to sell off their surplus vaccines. 
    Interestingly, in the UK, it had earlier been reported that Sir Roy Anderson, a scientist who advised the UK government on swine flu, also held a post on the board of GSK for which he was being paid 116,000 pounds annually. However, GSK claimed that he had declared his commercial interests and had not attended any meetings related to the purchase of drugs or vaccine for either the government or GSK.


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