Michael Meacher MP

Three issues have just come to light in the last couple of weeks which have an unrelated, but similarly, theme.   That is massaging of public statements which is deliberately designed to mislead, and in my view in the grossest cases should be made into a civil offence with penalties designed to deter.

First it was revealed that the scientists who drew up the key WHO guidelines advising governments to stockpile drugs in the event of a flu pandemic had previously been paid by drug companies that stood to profit. As a result Big Pharma, in particular Roche (Tamiflu) and GlaxoSmithKline (Relenza), made £4.8bn out of governments stockpiling drugs following panic predictions that didn’t come true.   The UK, where warnings were issued that 65,000 could die, spent £1bn.   The issue here is the lack of transparency in how decisions are made about pandemics and the concealment (or lack of prominence) given to a conflict of interest among scientists making the recommendations. (more…)