Hey! Pharma! Leave those kids alone... - July 11, 2008
Avoiding conflicts of interest is presumably something that executives in pharma companies get very good at. I’d be willing to bet Paul Blackburn didn’t see this one coming though.
Blackburn, a senior vice president at GlaxoSmithKline, has been forced to resign his position on the non-executive board of the UK body responsible for school standards. He survived just weeks in the role, reports the Financial Times today.
The problem? GSK makes drugs. Some drugs are used for children. And children go to schools.
Pharma bashing seems to have reached a new low.
Blackburn’s problems really started when last week’s edition of UK paper the Mail on Sunday ran an article headlined ‘Boss of drug firm behind cervical cancer jabs for schoolgirls is on board of Ofsted’.
The paper quoted “childcare expert Phil Frampton” saying, “Drug trials using children in care are a modern form of child slavery, only more insidious. Do we want the modern Bodysnatchers at the heart of the care system using their position on Ofsted as a cover for their global exploitation of children in care?”
What qualifies him to be a childcare expert isn’t explained in the Mail story, which is not to say that he isn’t eminently qualified.
Critics of the appointment were also unhappy that GSK recently won a government contract to supply a cervical cancer vaccine to schoolgirls, and potentially saving some of their lives. Won’t somebody think of the children?
The best of their complaints though, as explained by the FT is that GSK “tested and produced drugs that have caused side-effects”. I’m not the biggest fan of big pharma but really, come on, isn’t that their job?
Here’s the current membership of the Ofsted non-executive board, with Great Beyond thoughts on their potential conflict of interests.
George Battersby, Director of Human Resources, Cable & Wireless
Children use telephones! And ‘human resources’ sounds like he thinks children are a resource to be exploited! Get him off!
Paul Blackburn, Senior Vice President Financial Controller, GlaxoSmithKlineYusuf Chuku, Founding Partner, Staufenberger, Smith & Butte [advertising agency]
Some adverts are for children! Get this person away from our schools!Vijay Sodiwala, Managing Director, Digital Ventures, Chime Communications plc
Another marketing firm? Off!Sharon Collins, Executive Director of Operational Services, Scope
Charity work? That’s fine. You can stay.Christine Gilbert, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector
Well the Queen has grand-children. Conflict of interest alert!David MacLeod, Senior Advisor, Towers Perrin
A company involved in “human capital strategy”? Sounds like a modern form of slavery to me. Off!Jane Roberts, Director of Quality and Performance, Islington Primary Care Trust
PCTs oversee medicine! Medicine has side-effects! Get her off!John Roberts, former Chief Executive, Royal Mail and Deputy Chair, BECTA
I don’t know what BECTA does but you can’t be too careful. Off!Museji Takolia, Group Chairman, Metropolitan Housing Partnership
Children live in houses! You’re out.Chris Trinick, former Chief Executive, Lancashire County Council
Chris can stay, provided he can prove there are no children in Lancashire.
Image: Punchstock
Comments
I consider Conflict of Interest, such as that described in the news, the hypocrisy paradygm of our TIME, I termed in an Italian article on www.ilpungolo.com, Scienza, as Era dei Lumi Spenti. I fear that an honest, skilled, farsighted scientist, even NOT senior vice president at Glaxo Smith Kline,who should state that only individuals involved by Diabetic "and" Dyslipidaemic Constitutions have to undergo diabetes Primary Prevention, as you may read in both my website, Practical Applications, and www.nature.com, e.g., at URL http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2008/02/confusion_after_diabetes_study.html#comments
would be forced to resign his position ALSO "on the non-executive board of the UK body responsible for school standards". If so, are we living in the Mean Age of Medicine,arent we?
Posted by: Sergio Stagnaro | July 12, 2008 08:06 AM
I have absolutely nothing to do with the pharmaceutical industry, mind you, but I'm glad to see this destructive fad getting some attention. As HIV-positive blogger and columnist Andrew Sullivan wrote a while back: “Thank God for the evil pharmaceutical companies. One day, when the history of this period is written, I have a feeling we will look back with astonishment as we recognize that advances in medical science, particularly pharmaceuticals, were arguably one of the most significant developments of this era. And yet the people who pioneered these breakthroughs were… demonized and attacked. Baffling and bizarre. I'm merely grateful the attacks haven't stopped the research progress. They've merely slowed it.”
Posted by: Michael McNeil | July 12, 2008 04:00 PM