E-drug: Further dirty tricks in Australia
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Recent events have moved me to put on record some of the further
experiences of former members of the Australian Pharmaceutical
Benefits Advisory Committee and their supporters. As some readers
of this site will be aware, most PBAC members (10/12) were
sacked or resigned in December 2000 after a serious disagreement
with the Australian government, which viewed the committee as
having an unduly adversarial relationship with the pharmaceutical
industry. An investigative television program (ABC Four Corners)
established that the industry had lobbied to have particular
members removed from the committee and to place an industry
representative on the committee.
Most of us who were involved thought that the dissolution of the
committee would be the end of the matter and we could get on
with our lives. Not so...
Three people have been targeted for special continued attention - 2
former members Martyn Goddard and myself, and a supporter, Dr
Ken Harvey from La Trobe University (Melbourne).
Ken Harvey was unexpectedly accused by his institution of serious
misconduct for posting on a university Web site news articles and
published cartoons relating to the PBAC debacle. The material, an
extremely useful summary of the history and background to the
events, had links to published material that featured alleged
relations between the federal health minister and the pharmaceutical
industry. The material had been available for some time and the
timing of the University's attack on Dr Harvey was a surprise to all.
As you know, the latest news is that the university has not
proceeded with official action and has settled its differences with
Dr Harvey (who appears unable to comment) - I feel sure that the
many international expressions of support must have helped.
Martyn Goddard is a very effective consumer advocate, and was a
consumer representative on the PBAC; he is well known in Australia
as a journalist and AIDS activist. He tried harder than anyone to
hold together the remnants of the old committee, but after an
industry representative was placed on the PBAC he resigned and
became an outspoken critic of the present government and the
industry. He has been dropped from all his committee advisory and
consulting roles - with no warning or justification.
In my case, federal health department officials were ordered to
retrieve any documents relating to me. Subsequently, confidential
documents were released to a PR company and then to news
outlets with an accompanying written commentary that accused me
of taking money from a pharmaceutical company and biasing PBAC
decisions in favour of that company's products (and against
another's). Fortunately, some very good journalists chased down
the truth (the story was a complete fabrication and was easily
disproved).
There has been a systematic campaign in Australia to discredit
former members of the Australian PBAC and their supporters.
It seems that anyone who makes a stand on issues of equity and
fair prices for pharmaceutical products should expect to encounter
such tactics.
David Henry
Professor of Clinical Pharmacology,
Head of School of Population Health Sciences,
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences,
The University of Newcastle, NSW
Phone + 61 249 211856
Fax +61 249 602088
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