Dr John Campbell reviews a BMJ article published on 29 June 2022 that asks the question “From FDA to MHRA: are drug regulators for hire?”

 Here is the article from the BMJ

From FDA to MHRA: are drug regulators for hire? | The BMJ

Here is the penultimate paragraph:

“Light says it is no longer possible for doctors and patients to receive unbiased, rigorous evaluations from drug regulators. He suggests setting up non-profit organisations like Germany’s Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care, which was established to carry out evaluations of approved drugs that are independent of industry, rigorous, unbiased, and transparent. “The question is why weren’t drug regulators doing this trustworthy, transparent, rigorous, unbiased job in the first place?” says Light.”

Dr Campbell goes through the key points from the BMJ article in a straightforward way, so it is worth watching his 16 minute take here:

Are drug regulators for hire? - YouTube

Lots of evidence of the appearance of conflicts of interest such as revolving doors between industry and regulators, but here are some numbers that stood out.

Which I have rehashed into the table below

A few points. Whilst the Health Canada and FDA funding numbers look to be lower, the amounts of money are not. Health Canada receives around 1.4 billion dollars and the FDA 3.4 billion dollars.

Of even more significance is the proposal in the changes to the international health regulations to be imposed in 8 months, is that regulatory approvals will be FUNGIBLE across jurisdictions. If one hopelessly corrupt and incompetent regulator approves a drug – ALL regulators must approve the drug. Just imagine how the crooks in the UK and Australia will be fawned over by criminals in big Pharma!

Onwards!

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