Trust me I’m a Doctor

At first the new five in one vaccination looked like a response to widespread concerns about the ongoing use of mercury in jabs (shurely shome mishtake?), but now it looks like its blown the lid off the corruption in medical-industrial complex, as a blatant conflict of interest involving the chairman of the committee that approved the new five-in-one inoculation for infants has been exposed. Michael Langman, the chairman of the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation (JCVI), has declared a "non-personal interest" in Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD), one of two drug companies that own the vaccine's sole supplier, because it provides "industrial support" for his work as a professor of medicine at Birmingham University.

Hmmm. The vaccine, developed by Aventis Pasteur MSD, a joint venture betweek MSD and Aventis Pasteur, is said by government officials to be an improvement on the previous four-in-one combination for diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and Hib, and the separate oral polio vaccine. It will be used from the end of this month.

Prof Langman was not speaking to the media yesterday but a Department of Health spokeswoman said: "Prof Langman has not received any personal benefit from Aventis Pasteur MSD since becoming chairman of the JCVI.

"He has declared all his interests in strict accordance with the code of practice. Prof Langman has a non-personal interest in Merck Sharp & Dohme. The funding from this goes straight to his university and includes support for a clinical trial in colorectal cancer and for advice on chronic digestive disease.”
But the courting of medics – and the creeping sponsorship of wards, individuals and research bodies makes the whole relationship between the medical world and the pharmaceutical industry dodgier than Burke & Hare on a pub crawl.

- Gus Abraham