I used to think that scientists and scientific research were about a dispassionate pursuit of the truth. Now I know it is not so clear cut.
This is my first attempt at some links to describe how the pharmaceutical industry influences the research world to its advantage.
- A sobering start for this discussion is an article in the British Medical Journal which details a wide range of ways in which evidence based medicine has been corrupted by corporate interests, failed regulation, and commercialisation of academia. This article is explained and discussed by Dr John Campbell on YouTube, himself an ardent supporter of evidence based medicine.
- I don’t have an example to hand, but I know that the trials for the covid vaccines were run and published by the vaccine companies themselves. And that at times results were announce by press release before they were published in journals. This prevents scrutiny of the study design, the results and the conclusions. The headlines are out there and accepted before they can be scrutinised.
- In Spring 2021, after the first 90 days of the roll out of the vaccine to the general public, a report was given by Pfizer to the authorities in USA who were in charge of authorising the vaccine (the FDA). This included details of 1,200 deaths associated with the vaccine. This data was kept secret, but in 2022 a group of doctors and scientists managed to get a US judge to order it to be made public. More details are here.
- “I have refused bribes”. – A UK Cardiologist gives a 20 minute lecture describing how some people in the research community tried to suppress his findings because they didn’t show positive results for a certain medicine he was studying.
- The UK government is aware of the way the pharmaceutical industry influences medicine and in 2005 published a report The Influence of the Pharmaceutical Industry calling for changes.
- [page 5] …pharmaceutical companies will inevitably continue to be the dominant influence in deciding what research is undertaken and conducting that research, publishing it and providing information to prescribers.
- [page 8] We need an industry which is led by the values of its scientists not those of its marketing force.
An example of misdemeanour by pharmaceutical company – Pfizer. They abused their dominant position to overcharge the NHS for a life-saving epilepsy drug.
- Competition and Markets Authority CEO: “These firms illegally exploited their dominant positions to charge the NHS excessive prices and make more money for themselves – meaning patients and taxpayers lost out”
- They de-branded a particular drug so they could set the price at their discretion. In one year they increased the cost to the NHS from £2M to £50M.
- See gov.uk for details.
Here is an example of a media ‘vaccine expert’ who is high up in a pharmaceutical company:
- A BBC “vaccine expert” is also the lead of the Pfizer Centre of Excellence for Epidemiology of Vaccine-preventable Diseases.
- Here’s an additional thought: by classifying diseases as ‘vaccine-preventable’ we are playing down the fact that they could perhaps also be prevented by good nutrition and clean water, for example? Could they just as easily be treated with cheap, well-understood generic medicines like hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin?