Can anyone remind me if there was an article here on the SAGE members and their affiliations? In particular, the members that have connections to pharmaceutical firms, and whether there were any "declarations of interest".
Thanks.
This BMJ article on SAGE affiliations & commercial & financial interests was published in Dec 2020. It is therefore 7 months out of date, however, at that time SAGE members were not required to disclose anything much. See here.
Sorry, I should have said they do disclose but that information is not made public as far as I can tell.
If they have commercial (or indeed any other) conflicts of interest, directly or indirectly, then they should be excluded from advising on govt policies which have a connection to those conflicts.
Usual exceptions for minor shareholdings or indirect holdings through pension schemes etc
It's a fairly normal ethical approach reflected elsewhere eg. in company law.
The emergency laws in place governing the emergency SAGE is advising on should require full public disclosure, registering and updating of interests.
Same goes for MPs - there should be much more transparency, particularly during emergencies.
