E-drug: Pfizer aims to destroy Australian PBS (cont'd)
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Strong pressure to drug regulatory authority to accept this drug occurs in
many countries. In Indonesia, we spent months and months of discussions and
meetings. Pressures of the company was so obvious during the meeting. Some
members of so called 'expert panel' behaved as if they were the
representative of the company. Many members involved in the panel had
obvious conflict of interest, eg. receiving sponsorship from the company
to attend conference abroad, acting as medical adviser to the company, etc.
The proposition not to involve expert panel who had conflict of interest in
the evaluation process was not accepted. The outcome that the drug was
finally approved for marketing may be understandable, but the evaluation
process itself has jeopardized the credibility of the registration system
built over the years.
Dr B. Santoso
WPRO
SANTOSOB@who.org.ph
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