| ■ WHO Flu Advisers Had Ties to Drug Makers: Report | 2010.06.11 |
| A trio of experts who created the World Health Organization guidelines advising governments to stockpile drugs to prepare for a possible flu pandemic had close links to the drug companies that make the antiviral drugs, a new report contends. The scientists who wrote the guidelines, issued by the WHO in 2004, had previously been paid for other work from Roche, which makes Tamiflu, and GlaxoSmithKline, which makes Relenza, according to an investigation by the British Medical Journal and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the Guardian newspaper in England reported. The companies made more than $7 billion when governments around the world stockpiled the drugs, according to analysts. Even though the trio of experts had previously publicly declared their ties to the drug companies, the WHO itself did not publicly disclose any of these connections in its 2004 guidance about the need to stockpile the antiviral drugs, the newspaper reported. |