WHO Slammed Over Swine Flu Drugs

Key scientists advising the World Health Organisation (WHO) on planning for a flu pandemic had done paid work for pharmaceutical firms who in turn stood to gain from the guidance.

This has just been revealed by a joint investigation by the BMJ and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism published today.

WHO's advice then led to governments around the world stockpiling billions of dollars of antiviral drugs as part of global pandemic preparedness plans.

Despite repeated requests, WHO has failed to provide any details about whether such conflicts were declared by the relevant experts and what, if anything, was done about them.

This report echoes a highly critical inquiry by the Council of Europe, whose findings will also be published today and will fuel suspicions that the drug industry was able to exert undue influence on the WHO's decisions about the swine flu pandemic and the mass stockpiling of drugs.

The investigation finds that the WHO's 2004 guidance on the use of antivirals in a pandemic was prepared by an influenza expert who had received payment from Roche, manufacturers of oseltamivir (Tamiflu), and GSK, manufacturers of zanamivir (Relenza), for lecturing and consultancy work.

The guidance concluded that …"countries should consider developing plans for ensuring the availability of antivirals" and that they "will need to stockpile in advance, given that current supplies are very limited".

In addition, the investigation found two other scientists who prepared annexes to the WHO 2004 pandemic guidelines had recent financial links to Roche.

Deborah Cohen of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and Philip Carter of The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, said the WHO did not publicly disclose any of these conflicts of interest when it published the 2004 guidance.

It is not clear whether these conflicts were notified privately by WHO to governments around the world, many of which followed its advice.

This lack of transparency is compounded by the existence of a secret 'emergency committee' which advised WHO's Director General Margaret Chan on declaring an influenza pandemic. Significantly, the names of the 16 committee members are known only to people within WHO, and as such their possible conflicts of interest with drug companies are unknown.

However, WHO deny any industry influence on the scientific advice it received. It also says it takes conflicts of interests seriously and has the mechanisms in place to deal with them.

But the BMJ and the Bureau suggest that WHO seems not to have followed its own rules for the decision making around the pandemic.

The investigation team wonder, "whether major public health organisations are able to manage the conflicts of interest that are inherent in medical science effectively?"

In an accompanying editorial, Dr Fiona Godlee, Editor in Chief of the BMJ said WHO's credibility has been badly damaged.

She believes that "recovery will be fastest if it publishes its own report without delay or defensive comment, makes public the membership and conflicts of interest of its emergency committee, and develops, commits to, and monitors stricter rules of engagement with industry that keep commercial influence away from its decision making."

(BMcC/GK)