When Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, agreed to be interviewed by the BBC in December 2021, he probably saw it as an opportunity for a bit of free advertising and PR for his company and its Covid vaccine. And so it turned out, apparently. An undemanding set of questions from the docile Fergus Walsh gave Dr. Bourla the chance to opine unchallenged on all things Covid and Covid vaccination, and no doubt communicate a few of his company’s key marketing messages.
However, UsforThem, an organisation which campaigns for the needs and rights of children, saw things differently. Its researchers noticed that during his interview Dr. Bourla had made statements about Covid and the use of Covid vaccines in children that were misleading, unbalanced and not capable of substantiation. They took these concerns to the U.K. regulatory body, the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (the PMCPA), and a recent article in the Telegraph reports that the PMCPA agreed with them.
It is scandalous that it took the PMCPA a year to deal with this case. Meanwhile, Bourla and his colleagues have continued to make vast profits on the back of their COVID-19 vaccines, aided no doubt by these misleading statements. The PMCPA is the U.K. pharmaceutical industry’s very own ‘self-regulatory’ body. Self-regulation is a valuable privilege delegated to this industry by the MHRA, whose statutory responsibility it is to ensure that everyone, not just the pharmaceutical industry, complies with the laws which regulate the promotion of medicines. Failure to comply can, but very rarely does, result in criminal charges.
Those of you shocked by the revelation that the MHRA is 86% funded by the pharmaceutical industry, prepare yourselves: because the PMCPA is 100% funded by the pharmaceutical industry. It also reports to the board of its industry body, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (the ABPI). This Board is mostly comprised of senior management of U.K. pharmaceutical companies. In fact, at the time this complaint about Pfizer was made, the President of the ABPI Board was also head of Pfizer in the U.K., and the current ABPI Vice-President is the Pfizer U.K. Country President. The PMCPA actually describes itself as “a division of the ABPI”. So, no potential conflicts of interest there then.
Thus, UsforThem will probably have achieved this significant judgment in the teeth of determined opposition. The PMCPA’s own records demonstrate that it is not uncommon for complainants, as in this case, to wait a year or even longer for a final decision. Prevarication, inefficiency and delay appear to have been weaponised by the pharmaceutical industry over the past few years to enable complaints about misbehaviour to be kicked down the road far enough for the impacts of any resulting adverse judgments to be diluted and to allow sales and profits from misleading advertising and unethical promotion to be maximised.
And now that Bourla and Pfizer have eventually been found guilty of misleading the U.K. public about their Covid vaccine, what penalties or sanctions are they facing? Well, fortunately for them, nothing too serious: it is not possible to know exactly the extent of their offences, as the report of this case has not yet been published. However, the breaches of which they have apparently been found guilty – misleading the public, making unsubstantiated claims and failing to present information in a balanced way – could conceivably be covered by just three clauses of their industry’s Code of Practice. The current level of fine (or as the PMCPA prefers to call it ‘administrative charge’) for a single breach of one clause currently stands at £3,500 (or £12,000 if the breach is upheld at appeal). So, for this particular case, three individual clause breaches could mean that Pfizer is now facing a bill for a sum as little as £36,000. Had it not decided to appeal, that bill might only have been as low as £10,500. When viewed alongside the eye-watering profits Pfizer stands to make from its Covid vaccines, and no doubt the resulting generous bonuses banked by Bourla (even when just considered over the 12 months it has taken for the PMCPA to arrive at a decision for this case), these ‘penalties’ are of course derisory, both as punishments and also disincentives to similar behaviour in the future.
The failure of penalties meted out by the PMCPA to incentivise better behaviour is clearly demonstrated by the fact that over the past three years the PMCPA has judged Pfizer to have misled the public about its COVID-19 vaccines on no fewer than four previous occasions – including three occasions on which it was judged to have “failed to maintain high standards” and two occasions on which it was additionally judged to have “brought discredit on the pharmaceutical industry”. And it’s not just Pfizer who has been caught out misbehaving in this way. AstraZeneca too has been found guilty by the PMCPA of misleading the public about the safety and efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine. It is clear that these penalties not only fail to encourage companies to learn from their own errors, but from the errors of others too.
These days it must surely appear to many people that the entire regulatory system for oversight of pharmaceutical industry activities in the U.K. is slipping out of democratic control and that as a result it is failing to act in their interests. This has become more evident over the past three years, during which concerns have been raised about the rushed approvals of the Covid vaccines without adequate scrutiny and transparency. Similar concerns have also been raised about the post-marketing safety surveillance of these vaccines. To this list must surely now be added worries about how the behaviour of the pharmaceutical industry is regulated when it comes to its communication and interactions with the general public, clinicians, politicians, the media and journalists.
In order to restore public confidence in our entire pharmaceutical regulatory system, I believe that there are now three things which need to done.
First, the era of self-regulation of the U.K. pharmaceutical industry by the PMCPA and the ABPI must come to an end. It is now time that pharmaceutical companies were no longer allowed to mark their own homework. Inefficiency and delay can no longer be allowed to be used as a shield for malpractice. A new, properly resourced and truly independent body is needed to carry out this role. Such a body could possibly be financed at arms length by the MHRA from a levy on U.K. pharma companies based on, for example, their annual U.K. turnover. There are those who say that the MHRA should actually take this role back for itself. However, there is now such a level of concern and suspicion amongst the public about the competence, transparency and independence of the MHRA that I believe that trust can only be rebuilt by the establishment of a completely new system of oversight.
In addition, the penalties and sanctions resulting from breaches of the regulations must be made more severe. The current derisory ‘administrative charges’ can in no way act as satisfactory punishments for serious breaches of the regulations, particularly those which represent egregious betrayals of public trust. Neither do they currently act as any kind of disincentive for any future similar misbehaviour.
Secondly, a public inquiry is needed to investigate the process which the MHRA has used, and continues to use, for approving COVID-19 vaccines. This should consider all aspects of the approval process, including how approval was expedited using Regulation 174 and Conditional Marketing Authorisations, the drivers for expedition, approval of line-extensions, age-stratification of approvals and any potential conflicts of interest. There is currently a petition asking the Government to launch such an inquiry which can be found and signed here. At the time of writing the number of signatories stands at just over 13,300.
Thirdly, the last time there was any parliamentary scrutiny of activities of the pharmaceutical industry in the U.K. was a select committee investigation which reported in 2005. That report made a number of important observations and recommendations, some of which were implemented, many of which were not. Almost two decades later the world has changed a great deal and it is now again time for a parliamentary select committee to take another look at this issue – particularly in the light of the recent national response to COVID-19.
I will leave the final word to those parliamentarians of 2005, whose concerns seem possibly even more relevant today than they did then:
Our overarching conclusion is that the U.K. pharmaceutical industry is in many ways outstanding: it conducts excellent research, produces products which make a vital contribution to the health of the nation and is of great economic importance; however for want of critical scrutiny by, and lack of deference and accountability to, the public and public bodies, the industry lacks the discipline and quality control that it needs but cannot itself provide.
Dr. Alan Black is a retired pharmaceutical physician, having worked in and for the pharmaceutical industry for around 30 years. Prior to that he spent a number of years in laboratory and clinical medicine.
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Virtually every “vaccine” company, government and public health body on the planet misled the public/lied through their teeth about the “vaccine”.
And MSM. Fergus Walsh’s wife still work for a vaccine company?
Good point. No conflict of interest there. “The Fourth Estate” – now the propaganda arm of evil globalists.
This Fergus Walsh, the BBC’s ‘Medical Editor’ who hasn’t got a clue about statistics:
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/shock-as-bbc-admits-covid-figures-error/
As they have been lying for years except previously the msm occasionally took notice.
Big Pharma lobbyists exploit patients and doctors | The Independent | The Independent
(Refresh page to reveal full article?).
The collusion of papers such as the Times muppets (whose journalist Oliver Wright wrote the above linked article) in studiously ignoring these problems is a big part of the problem we face, and I suggest their behaviour is abhorrent and arguably (at the very least morally) criminal. Muppets.
From Mr. Wright’s article: “But it does mean all meetings, hospitality and potential clashes of interest of decision makers need to be registered and open to public scrutiny. That is not currently the case”. Seriously, has this been the case for any of the major decisions relating to the current shambles? Shame on the Times muppets for not pursuing this issue! Anti-truthing muppets!
A bit harsh on muppets, surely?
Today’s DS is like the US army’s most wanted Iraqi playing cards: Whitty and Vallance, followed by Hancock, followed by Bourla. Who is next Tony Fauci or Ace of Spades Bill Gates?
Among God knows how many problems this country is being forced to face we have to accept the following:
Our government executive is wholly corrupted, our Parliament is 99% corrupted, our regulatory authorities are corrupted, our courts and Judges are corrupted, our police forces are corrupted, large parts of our educational systems are corrupted, our health systems are corrupted and our pharmaceutical industry is so corrupt that it would be a threat to public health if it stated it was about to launch a rebranded aspirin.
Where the hell do we start?
One step at a time, doing what we can, and making sure we also enjoy life as much as we can because otherwise we hand the bastards a victory.
Sorry but I am not that concerned about Pfizer making misleading statements. They are minor peccadilloes, downstream of a crime against humanity so enormous that it is almost impossible to believe.
That is the withholding of safe off label drugs, which would have stopped the pandemic and meant there was no need for any vaccine, I am referring, of course to first hydroxychloroquine and then ivermectin, plus probably several other treatments.
https://pierrekory.substack.com/p/the-timeline-of-major-battles-in-c8e?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=645524&post_id=82993952&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email
The fact that these were smeared and proscribed around the world, has condemned millions to a horrible death who would otherwise have been safe. Just to protect the vast profits anticipated from vaccines and anti-virals.
Recently we have heard of the suppression of another drug which, seems to be a panacea for many ills.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/scandal-of-hope-filled-alzheimers-therapy-shelved-to-save-big-pharmas-profits/
How many more cures are there that have not had passionate supporters to bring them to our attention? We hear rumours of various miracle cancer cures that have not been allowed to proceed. I used to write these off as fake; now I am not so sure.
A patient cured is a customer lost…
In the grand scheme of things, this is but a drop in the ocean. As a means of sowing a seed of doubt amongst the BBC viewers it is priceless. This is small enough to not scare them, big enough to raise the question of false statements regarding the safety & efficacy of a product for children. The majority of folk care about their children & grandchildren enough to read something like this. After that, it is up to them what to do with the information. All we can do is sow the seeds. Enough will grow to change opinions. As for those that do not germinate, we have no control over them.
A broken system cannot reform itself. And the problem is that every important institution has been captured by the pharma industry or the owners of the pharma companies. They own everything, they control everything.. There is nothing left outside of the system capable of reforming it.
Can the Times muppets please instruct their journalist Oliver Wright (who previously wrote on big pharma corruption for the Independent in 2014) to write a full write-up on this latest case of big pharma corruption? No? They wouldn’t be anti-truthers now would they? Muppets.
Big Pharma lobbyists exploit patients and doctors | The Independent | The Independent
(Refreshingthe page may reveal whole article).
I will never be taking any “new product” produced by these corrupt Harmaceutical Companies.
I don’t believe a word any of the Health Bureaucrats say about anything. And, sadly, when it comes to pushing poorly tested experimental jabs on people who don’t need them, the medical profession have largely proven themselves to be either ignorant, corrupt or easily threatened and silenced.
The lesson I have learned is: If you want to stay healthy, look after your own health and stay away from “the medical profession.”
Hear, hear.
It seems to me that our governments have allowed the pharmaceutical industry to police itself. When lives and health are at stake this is not good enough.