http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-pbox27.html
Medical board members tied to company
January 27, 2002
About six times a year, Merck and Co. pays Dr. Lawrence Frenkel as much as $750 to give talks on vaccines, including the chickenpox vaccine that Merck makes. Frenkel is one of five members of the state Immunization Advisory Committee who have disclosed on reporting forms that they have financial interests in Merck. When the committee voted to recommend making the vaccine mandatory for schoolchildren, Frenkel recused himself because he had a conflict of interest. But he is a strong proponent of the vaccine and he participated in committee discussions before the vote.
The University of Illinois pediatrician said drug company speaking fees, a common practice in medicine, have not influenced his views, or those of his colleagues. "Very few of us are going to let our intellectual opinion be tainted by this," he said. These are the other committee members who have reported financial interests in Merck. *Susanna Roberts, a DuPage County Health Department nurse, reported in 1999 that she owned $16,091 in Merck stock. She said she has since sold her stock, although she still may own Merck shares in mutual funds. In any event, she said she would not let her holdings affect how she votes.
*Robyn Gabel, executive director of the Illinois Maternal and Child Health Coalition, reported that the coalition has received two $10,000 Merck grants. One grant paid for a vaccine education seminar, and the other supported a group that promotes immunizations among children under age 3. The grants "were not related to any issue before the committee," Gabel reported.
*Dr. Nancy Khardori of Southern Illinois University medical school gives talks for Merck and another vaccine maker, GlaxoSmithKline. In most years, her speaking fees total more than $5,000. But she said none of her talks has been about the chickenpox vaccine.
*Connie Keelin of the DeWitt-Piatt Bi-County Health Department reported receiving income from Merck investments. She does not know the exact amount, but said it is less than $1,000.
Jim Ritter
Chicago Sun Times
Excerpted from
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1102/111402cdam1.htm
regarding the Homeland Security Bill
Limited liability protections already in place for vaccines would be expanded to include vaccine components, such as the preservative Thimerosal, manufactured by Eli Lilly & Co. and already the subject of several class-action lawsuits by parents who claim the product's high mercury levels have caused their children's autism.
Another conflict-- from the Eli Lilly site
Sidney Taurel
Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer
Sidney Taurel is chairman, president and chief executive officer for Eli Lilly and Company. He became chief executive officer in July 1998 and chairman of the board of directors on January 1, 1999. Taurel had been president and chief operating officer since February 1996 and a member of the Lilly board of directors since July 1991. He is chairman of the company's policy committee and senior management forum. Born a Spanish citizen in Casablanca, Morocco, Taurel became an American citizen in November 1995. After graduating from École des Hautes Études Commerciales, in Paris, France, in 1969, he received a master of business administration degree from Columbia University in 1971. Taurel joined the Lilly subsidiary Eli Lilly International Corporation in 1971 as a marketing associate and was named marketing plans manager for the Brazilian affiliate the following year.
Returning to Europe in 1976, Taurel held several marketing and sales assignments in Eastern Europe and France. He became general manager of the company's affiliate in Brazil in 1981 and was appointed to the London-based position of vice president of Lilly European operations in 1983.
Taurel has lived in Indianapolis since 1986, when he returned to the city as president of Eli Lilly International Corporation. He became executive vice president of the pharmaceutical division in 1991 and was named executive vice president of Eli Lilly and Company and president of its pharmaceutical division in 1993.
Taurel is a member of the boards of IBM Corporation; McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.; and the RCA Tennis Championships and a member of the executive committee of the board of directors of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). He is also a member of The Business Roundtable, The Business Council and the board of overseers of the Columbia Business School and a trustee at Indianapolis Museum of Art. In 2001, Taurel became a chevalier (knight) of the French Legion of Honor. Taurel was appointed in June 2002 to the President’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, a select group whose members were chosen to provide George W. Bush with advice on homeland security matters.
Drug Company Executive New Head of Office of Management and Budget Washington -- The Senate has confirmed Mitch Daniels to be President George W. Bush's director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Daniels, who was the senior vice president of Eli Lilly and Company, an Indianapolis-based pharmaceuticals company, will head one of the largest of the White House executive offices, which annually prepares the president's budget proposals to Congress.
Daniels' job will be particularly challenging in coming months as he works to incorporate into the Bush budget the $1,600,000 million tax cut proposal that the president-elect has pledged to seek. OMB also is responsible for evaluating and coordinating management procedures and program objectives, as well regulatory policy, within and among all other federal offices, agencies and departments. "Mitch Daniels is a successful businessman who has an extraordinary amount of experience working within the federal government," Bush said in a December 22 statement read by his transition spokesman Ari Fleischer in Austin, Texas. "He will be an important adviser within my administration. (He) will help ensure that our federal government maintains fiscal discipline."
Daniels served as former President Reagan's top assistant for political and intergovernmental relations in 1985-87 and later served as a special assistant for domestic affairs. Daniels also served as senior adviser to Senator Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, and as executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
"There is no better person to fill this extremely important government position than Mitch Daniels," Lugar said in a statement issued December 22. "His broad ranging abilities, experiences and intelligence will make him an outstanding Office of Management and Budget director. He will bring vision and skill to government leadership and U.S. economic growth." Following his work in the White House, Daniels served as president and chief executive officer of the Hudson Institute, a public policy research institution. During his tenure at the institute, Daniels served as a volunteer adviser to the National Party during the 1989 Honduran election.
Daniels joined Eli Lilly and Company in 1990, becoming president of Lilly's North American pharmaceutical operations in 1993. He was named to his current position in 1997. "He possesses a rare combination of keen intellect, high integrity and a great sense of humor," Sidney Taurel, Lilly chairman and president, said after the OMB announcement. Daniels received his bachelors degree from Princeton University and a law degree from Georgetown University.
Vermin at the Gates of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)
The Autism Center is being formed at UMDNJ, Newark, NJ that includes among others, Dr. James Oleske, Dr. Harumi Jyonouchi, Dr. Walter Zahorodny and Dr. Xue Ming that is important for our children. There is vermin in the form of people with Merck connections that are in the gates (one) and knocking at the gates (two) of UMDNJ. One inside.......
In the latest Fall 2002 edition of The Foundation's Outlook (the Foundation of UMDNJ newsletter), page 5.
President of Merck Vaccines at Merck & Co. Appointed to Foundation Board Adel A.F. Mahmoud, MD, PhD, president of Merck Vaccines at Merck & Co., Inc., has been elected to the Board of Trustees of the Foundation of UMDNJ.
Two outside......
From the October 16, 2002 edition of the Morris County Daily Record on page A4 but not on the web site at http://www.dailyrecord.com/
"At a statehouse roundtable Tuesday the leaders praised a report by the Commission on Health, Science, Education and Training, which recommends compressing Rutgers, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and the New Jersey Institute of Technology into a single system. The name of the new system has not yet been determined; while the commission has proposed 'the University of New Jersey,' Gov. James E. McGreevey and many Rutgers alumni contend it should retain its historic moniker in some form..........
The commission headed by former Merck CEO Dr. P. Roy Vagelos, called for freestanding universities where scholars from diverse disciplines can develop special areas of expertise to serve their local communities and the state's burgeoning pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries."
Here is the kicker about the New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, he was a lawyer/lobbyist for Merck & Co.
Under 06 USA New Jersey, Profile (Jim McGreevey) "Lobbyist for Merck & Co."http://www.chez.com/vipsinfo/1n45e.htm
"McGreevey worked as a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co."http://www.wpunj.edu/cohss/polisci/faculty/sswhitmn.htm (under Tweedledee)
So we have Dr. Adel Mahmoud, Dr. P. Roy Vagelos and Gov. Jim McGreevey all ready and willing to make sure that there is no immunology research done for autism especially if it concerns the MMR vaccine at UMDNJ. Vermin at the Gates of UMDNJ.
Ray Gallup
http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/9305535?source=Evening
Double standards claim over MMR
By Isabel Oakeshott, Evening Standard, Health Correspondent
24 February 2004
Health chiefs stand charged with hypocrisy today after accusing a leading MMR scientist of "mixing spin and science". The Government claims Dr Andrew Wakefield had a conflict of interest when he produced a study suggesting a link between the vaccine and autism, because he was paid £55,000 by lawyers to investigate whether MMR was safe. Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Liam Donaldson described the work as "poor science" and Prime Minister Tony Blair seized on the revelations to call for an end to the debate over the vaccine's safety.
But autism campaigners today revealed that at least 19 experts on government-appointed committees, which declared the vaccine safe, also had conflicts of interest. Some of the doctors and scientists have shares in drugs firms that make the jabs, and others received research grants from them.
More than a dozen experts from the Committee on Safety of Medicines and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation - which produced reports stating that the vaccine was safe - are named by the campaigners.
They include:
Dr Phil Minor, who has been paid to advise MMR vaccine distributor GlaxoSmithKline on a legal case brought by families who say their children were damaged by the vaccine.
Professor Henry Dargie, Professor John Smyth and Professor Jonathan Cohen, who worked as consultants to GlaxoSmithKline.
Dr David Goldblatt, who was an "occasional member of expert panels" for GlaxoSmith-Kline and MMR supplier Aventis Pasteur. Non-personal interests include "industrial support" from the drugs company.
Dr Colin Forfar and Dr Michael Donaghy, who have shares in GlaxoSmithKline.
Professor David Nutt, who has been a consultant for Glaxo-SmithKline and is also a shareholder in the company.
Bill Welsh, of the anti-MMR group Action Against Autism, said: "If the Government wants to start looking for conflicts of interest, they only have to look at their own house. The number of experts on their so-called independent panels who have stakes in drugs companies is incredible.
"It is rank hypocrisy for them to criticise Dr Wakefield over the funding he received."
The row highlights the links between scientists and doctors and pharmaceutical giants, which fund thousands of research studies each year. Today politicians described the links as a "major problem" and called for more independence in medical research. Labour MP David Hinchcliffe, chairman of the Commons health select committee, said: "This whole debate has exposed the way in which research is compromised by the commercial realities of funding. I think this is becoming
a great difficulty."
