Brian Deer’s Boss Joins Board of MMR Manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline
Contributing Editor John Stone reports from London: Six days before Brain Deer’s latest attack on Andrew Wakefield – his first Sunday Times journalism for 18 months – it was announced that the proprietor of the Sunday Times and London Times newspapers, James Murdoch, had been appointed to the board of MMR manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline. The Guardian’s version of the story reported:
“He will serve as a member of GSK's corporate responsibility committee, where he will help to review "external issues that might have the potential for serious impact upon the group's business and reputation".
Deer’s article was followed by a string of attacks on Wakefield’s integrity in the Sunday Times’ sister newspaper, The Times of London.
In 2005 the House of Commons Select Committee on Health noted in its groundbreaking critical report ‘The Influence of the Pharmaceutical Industry’:
“Public relations is particularly important during times of bad publicity, especially when the safety of brands is called into question. Considerable resources are invested into building long-term, sustainable relationships with stakeholders and ‘key opinion leaders’ and journalists. These relationships are used to promote the use of certain brands and counter concerns relating to safety. Efforts to undermine critical voices in particular were identified, under terms of “issues management”. ”
Read further the Child Health Safety blog.
I think it's pathetic how you people beat up GlaxoSmithKline. Look how they're looking out for you:
"Five days before a 2007 article in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that the diabetes drug Avandia was linked to a 43% increase in heart attacks compared with other medications or placebos, a group of scientists and executives from the drug's maker, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), gathered in a conference room at the offices of the Food and Drug Administration in White Oak, Md. The GSK goal: to convince regulators that the evidence that the company's $3 billion-a-year blockbuster drug caused heart problems was inconclusive. To do that, the GSK officials focused not on heart-attack data but on a broader, less well defined category of heart problems called myocardial ischemia. The most recent studies of Avandia, the GSK officials told the FDA, had "yielded information that is inconsistent with an increased risk of myocardial ischemic events," according to sealed court proceedings obtained by TIME.
What GSK didn't tell the FDA was that on May 14, 2007, two days before the White Oak meeting, GSK's Global Safety Board had noted that a new assessment of Avandia studies "strengthens the [cardiac-risk] signal observed in the [previous] analysis." Or that eight days earlier, the company's head of research and development, Moncef Slaoui, had sent an e-mail to its chief medical officer saying Avandia patients showed an "increased risk of ischemic event ranging from 30% to 43%!" Or that the day before the meeting, the company had produced a preliminary draft report that showed patients on Avandia had a 46% greater likelihood of heart attack than those in a control group. (See how to prevent illness at any age.)
But the mixed-evidence argument GSK presented to the FDA worked. After months of deliberation, the agency decided to keep the drug on the market — a move worth billions of dollars to GSK but that also may have put millions of patients at risk."
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2010028,00.html?xid=rss-health&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Fscienceandhealth+(TIME%3A+Top+Science+and+Health+Stories)
Posted by: Carol | August 12, 2010 at 07:06 AM
Although as RFK said, "It isn't even high quality fraud", people will still believe it because they "read it in the newspaper". Big Pharma are ingenious in their methods. They bribe people with "legitimate jobs" so that they can strategically plant their mouthpieces in the government and news industry.
"Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive". A 600 Billion dollar industry has all the money they need to pay people to keep their web of lies going, but WE have the TRUTH on our side to untangle the web. We can only continue to untangle as fast as they keep spinning the web!!!
Posted by: Autism Grandma | March 03, 2009 at 12:42 PM
Steve,
Regarding your comment about "Verstraeten revisited", guess what Thomas Verstraeten is doing nowadays at GSK? He is a VP in charge of pharmacovigilance, of all things. He is in charge of looking after worldwide "vaccine safety" for GSK.
I am at a loss for words here. Unbelievable!
Helke
Posted by: Helke | March 02, 2009 at 11:39 PM
Verstraeten revisited - might be a good time for certain investigative journalists to find the list of these hirings that have gone under-the-radar
Posted by: Steve | March 02, 2009 at 01:48 PM
And what do they do? They accuse us of being biased because we have damaged children? Let's see...corporate interests vs children...who is the evil one here?
Still even if they were heavily vested, attacking the shrine of holy water called vaccines is a politicaly incorrect message... For if you think about it, it attacks the very core of our society...or the "better good" ideal, democracy, etc. It attacks the things we cherish, such as trust in authorities, science, etc. We all give up something to become citizens/pay our taxes, but they are doing a lot of damage for us to be citizens of this country..and frankly, our forefathers would be jumping out of their graves to see the misfortunate control pharmaceutical and gross national products have over us, and our country. Who is really running it now? We are now at the mercy of failing companies? I thought we had more hootspa than that?
World domination...it's already occured...we are beholden to all these companies, which maintains our lifestyles etc. Illuminati are working overtime, wake up sheeple.
Posted by: Kathy Blanco | March 02, 2009 at 01:45 PM
Jim Carrey's quote does come to mind, but so does RFK Jr.'s,
"it isn't even high quality fraud"
Posted by: Jack | March 02, 2009 at 01:16 PM
I feel like I need a shower.
Posted by: foxnewswatcher | March 02, 2009 at 12:39 PM
"“He will serve as a member of GSK's corporate responsibility committee, where he will help to review "external issues that might have the potential for serious impact upon the group's business and reputation"."
Oh, like Dr.Wakefield?? Good grief...they aren't even trying to hide their dubious behavior anymore. What a crock of $hit.
Posted by: Julie Swenson | March 02, 2009 at 12:03 PM
This conflict of interest is sickening.
Thank you for reporting on this, John & AoA & Child Safety Health.
Posted by: Twyla | March 02, 2009 at 11:56 AM
Looks like Murdoch is being rewarded by GSK for siccing his attack dog Deer on Wakefield...
Posted by: Sarah | March 02, 2009 at 09:15 AM
Jims words "how stupid do they think we are ?" comes to my mind
Posted by: Mark | March 02, 2009 at 08:04 AM
How awful, for some conflict of interest is a way of life that reflects business enterprise - for others it's a legal accusation.
"Greed is good" that quote still applies.
When will we ever learn?
Posted by: Allison Edwards UK | March 02, 2009 at 07:34 AM
Another sad development to a very sad bunch of men who cant put childrens health before making money.
Well done John Stone for writing up another link in the sad chain of PHARMA world domination...
but we wont be beaten !!no way,,
Posted by: Angus Files | March 02, 2009 at 06:44 AM