Relayed the past several initiatives of Senator Francis Autain, one of the very few French politicians to want to curb corruption Radicarl.net.jpgles excesses of the pharmaceutical industry and the vast network of conflicts of interest that maintained at the expense of the common good of citizens and our health.
We have, however, all elected to this, our men and women in politics: to represent the general interest and not kowtow to the financial strength and courtier of the pharmaceutical lobby group or some private interest whatsoever .
Yet it is clear that the abuses and excesses of the industry are legion, made possible by cronyism with policies that do nothing to fill the legislative vacuum and French law, and therefore to provide means of repression (and deterrence) in the area. Whatever the severity of the health scandal of cocooning, acts under the influence of such political, administrative officer, doctor or expert, you can not see any lawsuit brought by the French public powers. Neither them nor the pharmaceutical industry. And no opportunity for users and their associations have a defense and protection worthy of the name. On the contrary, the prosecution Silencing and other means of intimidation of citizens - to muzzle whistleblowers and any form of citizen expertise - flourish without anyone raises the question of the dangers of this phase any independent source and not interested.
No mechanism of participatory democracy does participation and effective citizen deliberation on political and health issues. No legislative does investigate and severely punish the excesses of industry. No safeguards exist, and there is no curb lobbying, conflicts of interest, revolving doors and other epiphenomena reflecting the same tendency to blithely trampling the interest in the name of profits and stock returns and any other the servants of industry, whether on the benches of political assemblies in health agencies, in medical offices or elsewhere.
It reiterates that Francis Autain merit him the confidence of users. It deserves the widest possible support for his work in public health. Work to which we all can and must participate in their own way, to finally start to clean the stables, to clean up this lifelong infection, this chronic sepsis caused by conflicts of interest whose effects were once again illustrated by fiasco of the influenza A H1N1. Make no mistake about it! What happened there is neither isolated nor unique. But the global dimension openly and media coverage have made this unhealthy situation more easily perceptible to the public.
This scandal makes everyone realize how manufacturers and their servants and political science play with our health for base economic. We should seize this as an opportunity to insist on an urgent and comprehensive reform of the system of expertise and political decision-health as a whole, preferably before public health can collapse. We must demand a radical change and not be lulled by the rocking chairs that are the speeches of mutual congratulation, as understood at the appalling meeting of the High Authority of Health dated December 10, 2009. The promising title, "Expertise and Conflicts of Interest", and timeliness of the issue did not prevent the opinion leaders present to say that everything was going well in the brave new world for conflict of interests ... (See for example the protest of the Citizen Science Foundation cons this amazing break between experts and ordinary people and the dangers it involves, on this and this, for example. The Foundation and the network which ETAL it is more proposals are well supported on these issues to the expertise, lobbying and conflicts of interest in health and in all areas).
François Autain and other senators listed below have filed January 21 a resolution "to create a commission to investigate the role of pharmaceutical companies in the management by the Government of influenza A (H1N1) v". This also means "make a transparency on the data elements issued by governments to experts, their independence and possible implications of possible conflicts of interest in the decision making of government."
