Pharmaceutical and Allied Industries and Ethics
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By Srinivasa Rajagopal
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I shall not talk about the situation in India but about the situation in America. I shall be presenting 3 or 4 examples taken from a book, I read recently, entitled “A people’s History of Science” by Clifford D Connor.
The first example is from the Pharma Industry. ‘ Excerpta Medica,’ a medical publishing house in New Jersey produces for any Pharma Company readymade scientific articles placed in reputed medical journals under the authorship of influential doctors or academicians. The modus operandi is as follows:
‘Excerpta Medica’ is engaged by a Pharma company to find a distinguished academician or doctor who will agree to have his name on a commentary /research article which has been written by the Pharma company or by a freelance writer otherwise known as ghost writer. The free lance writer gets $5000 and the doctor gets around $1500 for putting his name as the author of the article. In many cases, the so-called author may not have even seen the raw data based on which the article has been written. As an example the author quotes, “In 1966 a widely read book FEMANINE FOREVER promised estrogen as a miracle drug that would help women maintain their youth and beauty. Authored by an M.D. the book was considered medically authoritative. But it was later revealed that Wyeth Pharma Company marketing Harmon replacement therapy drugs financed the entire project.
Unfortunately, the Govt. organization, which was supposed to oversee the activities of Big Pharma COs, cannot be relied upon. The Food & Drug administration, which is expected to protect the public from unsafe drugs, colluded with Pharma COs by approving such unsafe drugs. In 1968, the FDA approved a vaccine, which soon thereafter had to be pulled out of the market as it caused severe bowel obstruction among children. It was subsequently revealed that the advisory committee of FDA and CDC (Center for Disease Control) had more than 50% of their members who have had past connections with the Vaccine Manufacturer.
The next example is about Cigarette smoking and Cancer. A World Health Organization Report in 2000 said that cigarette cos. set up front scientific and research institutes that would dispute responsible studies conducted by reputed institutes. In particular, John Graham, Director of the prestigious Harvard University Center for Risk Analysis solicited financial contributions from a tobacco co, while down playing the risks of second –hand smoke. The author says, “ Technological Studies that minimize the health hazards of cigarette smoking constitute perhaps the most transparent abuse of the authority of Science”.
Next example is about the pesticide, Alar. In 1989, in the popular TV program “60 minutes’ it was mentioned that the widely used pesticide Alar was potentially dangerously carcinogenic. Four years earlier, a committee of scientists of Environmental Protection Agency had also reached the same conclusion that Alar was Carcinogenic. But later on EPA appointed an outside committee of supposedly disinterested scientists and this committee concluded that Alar was safe and acceptable. It was later found that out of the 8 members of the outside committee, 7 were past consultants to the pesticide manufacturer.
Lastly, I wish to mention about smallpox vaccination, which according to many sources was supposed to have been discovered by a British physician, Dr Edward Jennar in 1796. An American preacher named Cotton Mahlar wrote to a friend in UK in 1717, that his African slave named One simus had told him as to how in Africa they inoculated against small-pox. The method was similar to that mentioned by Dr. Jennar, but in a cruder form. In the same year, 1717, an aristocratic European lady called Lady Montague, had in a letter to her friend in Europe, had mentioned as having seen in Constantinople, a procedure of inoculation against small-pox used by peasant women. This was similar to the one as revealed by the African slave. Cotton Mahlar tried to advocate the procedure, but faced stiff resistance for adopting an idea from Africans. The author says, “The debt owed to Africans for introducing inoculation in N. America was soon forgotten.”
A recent example, of course, is of VioXX, which must be fresh in your memory. After reading all this, I am not sure whether I should take the medicines prescribed by my doctor!
(Writer is a thinker and was Executive with one of the reputed Indian Pharamceutical Company.)

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