| ■ WHO Chief Defends Swine Flu Planning | 2010.06.11 |
| The World Health Organization's decisions about swine flu responses weren't influenced by advisers' financial links to drug companies, according to WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan. "At no time, not for one second, did commercial interests enter my decision-making," she said Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. Last week, a report in the British Medical Journal said the WHO failed to disclose potential conflicts of interest among some advisers who helped write pandemic flu preparation guidelines, which recommended that countries stockpile antiviral drugs and vaccines. Three of the 22 experts who wrote the guidelines had previously been paid by drug makers for things such as speaking at meetings sponsored by the companies. WHO did nothing wrong, according to Michael Osterholm, a flu expert at the University of Minnesota who has advised the U.S. government on pandemic preparations. "There was nothing in those guidelines that was not based on the best science available," Osterholm told the AP. A 29-member expert panel is reviewing WHO's handling of the swine flu outbreak and their findings will be released next year. |