The US government's Centers for Disease
Control have been taking millions of dollars in drug company money in recent
years, according to a news report in The British Medical Journal.
Researchers in America and around the world expressed shock, and asked how the
funding has been influencing CDC actions and decisions.
"The CDC Foundation raised $52m in fiscal
year 2014, of which $12m was from corporations," reported The BMJ. "The CDC itself in fiscal year 2014
received $16m in conditional funding from sources such as corporations,
individuals, and philanthropy, including the CDC Foundation. Conditional
donations are earmarked for specific projects. For example, in 2012, Genentech
earmarked $600,000 in donations to the CDC Foundation for CDC’s efforts to promote
expanded testing and treatment of viral hepatitis. Genentech and its parent
company, Roche, manufacture test kits and treatments for hepatitis C."
The article reviewed a number of other
possible influences of private money on CDC activities.
Jerome R Hoffman, a methodologist and emeritus
professor of medicine at UCLA, told The BMJ, “Most of us
were shocked to learn the CDC takes funding from industry. Of course it is
outrageous that industry apparently is allowed to punish the CDC if the agency
conducts research that has the potential to cut into profits. But it was our
government that made this very bad arrangement, so the way to fix it is not to
ask the CDC to ‘pretty please be more ethical, and avoid conflicts of
interest’; rather, as a society, we have to get the government to reject this
devil’s bargain, by changing the rules so this can no longer happen.”
Lenzer, Jeanne. “Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention: Protecting the Private Good?” BMJ 350 (May 15, 2015): h2362.
doi:10.1136/bmj.h2362. (Full text)
--Rob Wipond, News Editor
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Thank
You Mr Wipond and MIA
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