First off, watch the short announcement from the MHRA's CEO, Dr. Ian Hudson.
We are delighted to announce a new partnership with @gatesfoundation and @WHO that aims to extensively improve the safety monitoring of medicines in low and middle-income countries: https://t.co/WHwpC8yeo4 pic.twitter.com/TCkJGSrotH— MHRAgovuk (@MHRAgovuk) December 11, 2017
He looks almost apologetic, don't you think? Either that or he is embarrassed?
Before taking his role as CEO of the British Medicines Watchdog (MHRA), Hudson was the agency’s licensing director, responsible for the majority of its medicines licensing activities. Prior to that, he was the World Safety Officer for GlaxoSmithKline. He can be seen here defending Paxil, also known as Seroxat, (under oath) during a one-hour video deposition that was aired during the Tobin Vs GlaxoSmithKline case. A case which saw the Jury return a verdict against GlaxoSmithKline and, indeed, Paxil. (Fig 1)
Fig 1
Who Are The Gates Foundation?
Better known as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, it was launched in 2000 and one of its primary aims is to "enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty."
What Are They Currently Involved In?
Well, aside from teaming up with the MHRA and having a say on the safety monitoring of medicines in low and middle-income countries, they are also embroiled in serious issues regarding a vaccine study they sponsored that was carried out in India in 2009.
Bill and Melinda's foundation funded the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) to carry out the studies in which 5 young girls died after receiving the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine, Gardasil, manufactured by Merck.
According to The India Times, "...consent for conducting these studies, in many cases, was taken from the hostel wardens, which was a flagrant violation of norms. In many other cases, thumbprint impressions of their poor and illiterate parents were duly affixed onto the consent form. The children also had no idea about the nature of the disease or the vaccine "
In 2015, Judges in India's Supreme Court demanded answers regarding the violations. An investigation carried out by the British newspaper, The Daily Mail, found that "children as young as nine suffered side-effects after being used as unwitting human guinea pigs for the new drug."
The Daily Mail adds:
An investigation by an Indian parliamentary committee had previously concluded that the trials amounted to a serious breach of trust and medical ethics amounting to child abuse and 'a clear cut violation of the human rights of these girl children and adolescents'.
The committee's report said it had been established that clinical trials of the vaccines had been carried out 'under the pretext of an observation/demonstration project' in violation of all laws and regulations laid down by the government for such trials.
GSK is also embroiled in the controversy. Shortly after the Gardasil debacle, two more deaths were reported from Vadodara, Gujarat, where tribal children were also vaccinated with another brand of HPV vaccine, GSK's Cervarix.
Earlier this year, things got so bad that India's health ministry decided to take over funding responsibility for the immunization program backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The reason? "A possible conflict of interest arising from the foundation's tied to pharmaceutical companies." (Business Standard)
MHRA
So now, we seem to have gone full circle with today's MHRA announcement from Dr. Ian Hudson, who claims...
"We are delighted to be involved in such an important global initiative. New drugs and vaccines are being brought to the market for the first time in public health programmes in settings where the safety monitoring and regulatory systems need strengthening. The expertise we can bring to the project will help national safety monitoring centres identify risks and benefits early and take appropriate regulatory action to support global health."
So, let's get this straight. Bill and Melinda Gates funded an immunization program in India. That program kills a number of children and the protocol was found to be 'a clear-cut violation of the human rights of children'. Next, Ian Hudson, the former World Safety Officer at GSK, announces that Bill and Melinda Gates will be teaming up with the MHRA to strengthen "the safety monitoring and regulatory systems."
Someone pinch me.
If this hasn't got you thinking outside of the box, ladies, and gentlemen, then maybe this will?
An article published in 2012 entitled, 'The Gates Foundation connection to the Glaxo drug fraud scandal', is a fascinating read. It highlights, amongst many things, that Tachi Yamada, former head of global health for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was formerly the head of research and development for GSK.
Yamada, while he was head of global health for the Gates Foundation, was accused in a U.S. Senate hearing of bullying a scientist to not publish negative findings of a GSK diabetes drug called Avandia. The same drug that Glaxo failed to report important data to the FDA showing that it increased heart risks in patients by 43%. Despite agreeing to a misdemeanour count in 2012, GSK still maintains "the civil settlement is not an admission of any liability or wrongdoing in the selling and marketing of Avandia." However, they agreed to pay $3 billion imposed on them by The Department of Justice for failure to report Avandia safety data.
I'm sure Ian Hudson knows of the links between GSK and the Gates Foundation. Probably why his announcement (in the video at the top of this post) looks like it's being delivered by someone who has soiled his underpants. Either that or he has become nauseous after being trapped in the incestuous revolving door at the MHRA!
Bob Fiddaman
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