Author: KEI Staff

On January 20, 2011, 9 civil society organizations sent a letter to the WHO Executive Board registering an objection to the selection of Dr. Paul Herrling of Novartis to the WHO Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination. The groups signing the letter were:

• CIDEPRO
• Déclaration de Berne – Berne Declaration
• HAI Europe
• HAI Global
• Health GAP (Global Access Project)

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WHO has kindly made available its conflict of interest guidelines. Apparently they are not available from the public web page. Attached are two documents:

• Conflict of Interest Guidelines and Procedures
• Declaration of Interests for WHO Experts

A few of the many interesting provisions follow:

I. MEANING OF “CONFLICT OF INTEREST”

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The following is an August 10, 2010 letter written by Alberto Cerda Silva, a Research Associate of Knowledge Ecology International, to Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, Presidente Constitucional de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, regarding the position of the Mexican government in the ACTA negotiations.

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On April 28, TACD will be holding a meeting from 9 am to 3 pm at the U.S. Department of Commerce, in Washington, DC, to discuss the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

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Below are asks from the 2010 PhRMA submission to the USTR Special 301 list on the topic of drug pricing and reimbursement decisions, and described as ‘Market Access Barriers.’ In its assertions, PhRMA attack countries for government price negotiations, making use of reference pricing, the insufficient involvement of pharmaceutical companies in setting government pricing policies and the composition of drug formularies, among other things.

CHINA

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Billy Tauzin announced today that he will be stepping down as President and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) at the end of June 2010.

PhRMA’s 990 Tax Return Form, Schedule J-1 shows the amount Tauzin was compensated in 2008:

Base compensation: $2,055,445
Bonus & incentive compensation: $692,875
Other reportable compensation: $159,412
Deferred compensation: $1,556,960
Nontaxable benefits: $11,465

Total: $4,476,157
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In the United States, tax exempt non-profit organizations are subject some some requirements for financial disclosure via the IRS form 990, which is available to the public. The disclosure requirements cover most U.S. based trade associations, including the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the trade association for some 28 “member” companies.

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