Cambridgeshire - Centre
of the Pharmaceutical Universe?
Prime Minister Tony Blair
has said that he will sign an online petition supporting animal testing
to take a stand against "a tiny group of extremists". His intervention
came as international financial institutions pledged to stand by the pharmaceuticals
group GlaxoSmithKline, 50 of whose shareholders were given an ultimatum
by the group Campaign Against Huntingdon Life Sciences to sell
their shares within 14 days or have their personal details published on
a website. GlaxoSmithKline is a customer of Huntingdon Life Sciences
in Cambridgeshire, the animal testing research laboratory which
has been the subject of a long campaign by anti-vivisectionists.
In 1998, Glaxo Wellcome
(as it was then known before the merger with SmithKline Beecham) severed
links with Huntingdon Life Sciences after a television documentary exposed
animal cruelty at the laboratory, but reinstated its relationship a year
later when new management took over.
John Prescott
Dictators
ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And
the tigers are getting hungry. [
Winston Churchill 1874-1965]
In
2002,Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott granted permission
for a controversial laboratory (which would conduct experiments on
macaque and marmoset monkeys) at Cambridge University, overruling
the advice of his own Planning Inspector, allowing building work in
the so-called Green Belt, which preserves the local countryside on
the outskirts of Cambridge, and which had already been rejected twice
by local politicians.
By taking
a stand against "a tiny group of extremists" Tony Blair is ignoring
the protests of peaceful, law-abiding people. How DEMOCRATIC is that?
TAMIFLU
Also in Cambridgeshire
is another pharmaceutical company, California-based Gilead Sciences Inc.
which has its clinical development and regulatory operations based at Great
Abington in Cambridge.
It was Gilead that developed Tamiflu,
the antiviral medication believed to be effective against the deadly H5N1 strain
of bird flu. Gilead then licensed Tamiflu to Roche Holdings in
1996 to get help manufacturing and marketing it, but Gilead complained that
Roche wasn't aggressive on either front. Gilead, which was receiving royalties
equal to about 10% of Tamiflu sales, took the unusual step of terminating its
licensing agreement with Roche and going into arbitration to win back exclusive
rights to the drug.
In November 2005, Roche Holdings
and Gilead Sciences settled their dispute over Tamiflu and decided to work together
to boost its supply. Gilead negotiated a bigger cut of Tamiflu revenue, 14%
to 22% compared with 10% previously, and Roche paid Gilead $62.5 million in
back payments.
Roche, Gilead Sciences resolve Tamiflu conflict [Julie Schmit USA TODAY - 16
November 2005]
The prospect of a bird flu outbreak
may be panicking people around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news
for US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected
investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns
the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after
drug in the world.
Rumsfeld was on Gilead's board
for 12 years and was chairman from 1997 to 2001, when he joined the Bush administration
and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million,
according to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld.
The forms don't reveal the exact
number of shares Rumsfeld owns, but in the past six months fears of a pandemic
and the ensuing scramble for Tamiflu have sent Gilead's stock from $35 to $47.
That's made the Pentagon chief, already one of the wealthiest members of the
Bush cabinet, at least $1 million richer.
Rumsfeld isn't the only political
heavyweight benefiting from demand for Tamiflu. Former Secretary of State George
Shultz, who is on Gilead's board, has sold more than $7 million worth of
Gilead since the beginning of 2005. Another board member is the wife of former
California Gov. Pete Wilson.
Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu [Nelson D. Schwartz CNN - 31 October 2005]
In July 2005 the Pentagon ordered
$58 million worth of Tamiflu for US troops.
The fictional version
of a genuine global calamity. A film depicting the tragic poverty
and disease rampant in Africa, the arrogance of corrupt politicians
and greedy corporations and the ineptitude of local governments.
Justin Quayle (Ralph
Fiennes) runs up against Big Pharma, exercising its very real muscle
in both ignoring the easily treated diseases of the third world
and using its "disposable" populations for off-the-books
Research & Development.
On 15th March 2006 a group
protesting against Procter & Gamble's use of animals in toxicity tests
for cosmetics, toiletries and household products projected a stark message
- 'PROCTER & GAMBLE TEST ON ANIMALS' - in 15ft high letters across
the iconic 'Angel Of The North' sculpture on Tyneside.
Angel of Mercy!
Donald Rumsfeld won awards as the 'Outstanding Chief Executive
Officer in the pharmaceutical industry' in 1980 and 1981 for maximising
the profits of the pharmaceutical giant G D Searle where he was
the CEO from 1977-1985 (G D Searle is now owned by Pharmacia which
merged with Pfizer).
In 1997 Rumsfeld became
chairman of the Pharma-Biotech company Gilead Sciences Inc. and was on
the board of Amylin Pharmaceuticals.
It was under Rumsfeld that
Searle got FDA approval for the controversial artificial sweetener, aspartame,
which it marketed as NutraSweet. Some believe that the approval
of aspartame was influenced by conflict of interest and that persons involved
in the aspartame approval process were rewarded with high paying jobs
or consulting positions.
In April 2000, Pharmacia
& Upjohn completed a merger with Monsanto and Searle creating
Pharmacia. Following the merger, Pharmacia continued Searle's agreement
with Pfizer to co-promote the
NSAIDCelebrex, which was originally co-developed by Searle
and Pfizer.
Monsanto is the manufacturer
of ethoxyquin - a potentially cancer-causing agent used as a preservative
in dry pet foods. Some veterinarians believe that ethoxyquin is a major
cause of disease, skin problems, and infertility in dogs. The use of ethoxyquin
in pet foods has not been thoroughly studied.
Due to questionable data
in the original study on its safety, Monsanto was required to perform
a new, more rigorous study of ethoxyquin. This was completed in 1996.
Even though Monsanto found no significant toxicity associated with its
own product, in July 1997, the FDA’s Centre for Veterinary Medicine
requested that manufacturers voluntarily reduce the maximum level for
ethoxyquin by half, to 75 parts per million.
Monsanto are the
company that gave us Agent Orange for military use in Vietnam, pesticides,
beef growth hormones, PCBs and Dioxin. Monsanto is the global leader in
developing and marketing Genetically Engineered (GE) products.
In 2002, over 90 percent of GE hectares worldwide were planted with Monsanto's
GE seeds.
Monsanto: heading for disaster? [Greenpeace]
Influence of the pharmaceutical
industry...
Many clinical trials
are designed to fit desired outcomes...
158. Throughout this inquiry
we received much evidence about the influence of the pharmaceutical industry.
We were told that it permeates the health service, regulatory and licensing
bodies, research institutions, Government and the public perception
of medicines. The extent of this influence was pithily expressed by Dr
Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet - At almost every level of NHS
care provision the pharmaceutical industry shapes the agenda and the practice
of medicine.
180. Clinical trials
can provide very important data about drugs but they do not always provide
the clear information on drug safety and therapeutic effectiveness that
is needed. It is claimed that many clinical trials are designed to
fit desired outcomes or, worse, primarily for marketing purposes,
rather than the advance of health care or scientific understanding. Dr
Richard Nicholson, editor of the Bulletin of Medical Ethics, told us:
A clinical trial was proposed
to my ethics committee some years ago of
Vioxx versus naproxen and we wondered to ourselves why on earth
Merck want to compare this with naproxen. They did not give us the
details initially and then when we asked and asked, we finally found out
that they had already carried out major trials against the two major anti-inflammatory
drugs… and found absolutely no advantage of their drug. They were
hoping that by comparing it to naproxen, which had just five per cent
of the market, they would be able to show an advantage.
181. In order for a drug to be
licensed it has to show that it is more effective than a placebo, usually in
two controlled trials. However, according to Prof Healy, companies can run 10
or more trials in carefully selected samples using instruments designed to pick
up any effect and, even if the results show that the drug failed to beat
placebo in the majority of trials, the drug may still be licensed. The trials
producing negative results are commonly identified as failed trials rather than
drug failures.
182. Whether the experimental
drug is compared to placebo or a comparator drug will affect the outcome. Common
flaws in trial design include the use of inappropriate comparator drugs,
such as those associated with a higher risk of side-effects than others in the
therapeutic group. Selection of dosage may also be used to skew results. Administration
of a comparator drug in unduly low doses may result in reduced levels of efficacy.
Administration of the comparator drug at relatively high dosages might make
the test drug appear safer than it really is. These and other methods of trial
design may show the new drug in a misleadingly positive light.
Donald Rumsfeld won awards as the 'Outstanding Chief Executive
Officer in the pharmaceutical industry' in 1980 and 1981 for maximising
the profits of the pharmaceutical giant G D Searle where he was
the CEO from 1977-1985 (G D Searle is now owned by Pharmacia which
merged with Pfizer).
