E-drug: Crisis in the Australian PBS (cont)
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New PBAC drug committee controversy
By MARY-ANNE TOY
HEALTH EDITOR "THE AGE"
Thursday 15 February 2001
http://www.theage.com.au/news/2001/02/15/FFXPQ5QV6JC.html
The new consumer representative on the Federal Government's troubled
drugs advisory committee has come under fire for accepting drug
company
sponsorship for his consumer group.
The government yesterday confirmed the appointment of Matthew
Blackmore, the executive director of the Consumers' Health Forum, to
the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. He replaces the
previous consumer representative, Martyn Goddard, who, along with six
others including the former chairman, has quit after the government's
controversial appointment of a former drug-industry lobbyist, Pat
Clear, to the 12-member committee this month.
The Consumers' Health Forum, a national consumer group, received
$22,000 in the past two financial years from Bristol Myer Squibb and
Eli Lilly to pay for supplements in its quarterly magazine.
Mr Blackmore yesterday referred all questions about drug company
funding to the forum's chairman, Lou McCallum. Mr McCallum said Mr
Blackmore had not been involved in the negotiations with the
pharmaceutical companies and the sponsorship ($16,000 from
Bristol-Myers Squibb and $6000 from Eli Lilly) did not give the drug
companies any editorial influence. Mr McCallum said the forum had
considered the concerns of outgoing advisory committee members
about Mr Clear's appointment but the interests of consumers were best
served by being "at the table".
The Australian Consumers' Association yesterday said it was a clear
conflict of interest for a consumer group to accept pharmaceutical
company sponsorship and criticised the Consumers' Health Forum for
cooperating with the government's changes to the committee. The
association has refused to nominate any representatives to the
advisory committee, as it is entitled to do under committee
guidelines, until Mr Clear is removed.
"Our preference would have been for all consumer groups not to cooperate
because we think that (cooperating) gives a credibility to the scheme which
it should no longer have," Ms Sylvan said.
Ken Harvey, senior lecturer at La Trobe University's School of Public
Health, said the Consumers' Health Forum was effectively supporting
the government's changes to the committee. "One can only wonder
whether their stance reflects the fact that CHF and some of its
member organisations are largely dependent upon government and/or
drug company finance whereas the ACA is completely independent," Dr
Harvey said.
Opposition health spokeswoman Jenny Macklin said the Consumers' Health
Forum, which receives almost all of its funding from the Federal
Government, may have been intimidated into supplying a consumer
representative under threat of losing funding.
The government yesterday announced the appointment of Mr Blackmore
and a Sydney cancer specialist, Robyn Ward, to complete the committee.
A spokeswoman for Dr Wooldridge said she could see no conflict of interest
with the Consumers' Health Forum receiving advertising or sponsorship
from a drug company.
Professor Don Birkett, the former committee chairman who quit after
refusing to serve with an industry member, said yesterday accepting
pharmaceutical company funding was a "very delicate line to tread".
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Reprinted under the fair use doctrine of international copyright law:
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
Dr. Ken Harvey, Senior Lecturer, School of Public Health,
Room 221, Building HS1 (NW9),
La Trobe University, Bundoora, 3086, Australia,
Telephone +61 3 9479 5773,
Facsimile +61 3 9479 1783,
Personal mobile 0419181910,
Internet: http://www-sph.health.latrobe.edu.au/kharvey/
"Ken Harvey" <k.harvey@latrobe.edu.au>
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