Vaccine Advisers Linked to Drug Firms

January 29, 2001

One-third of the members of a UK government committee that has advised

that the MMR vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella is safe have

financial interests in drug companies that make the treatment, writes Rosie

Waterhouse.

Twelve of the 36 members of the Committee on Safety of Medicines have

financial links with the MMR manufacturers, whose products they have given

the all-clear on the basis of published research. Most members are academics

or medical experts who specialise in pharmacology.

Five of them hold shares in the drug companies, or are paid

consultants, while another seven have received grants or sponsorship from

them to fund academic studies or clinical trials.

All members declare their financial interests in a register and before

meetings. The chairman then decides whether they can participate in

discussions.

Campaigners against the MMR vaccine, who fear it causes autism or

bowel disease in children, claim the financial links between drug watchdogs

and the pharmaceutical industry could lead to a conflict of interest.

One lobby group, Jabs, is to write to Alan Milburn, the health

secretary, asking for an investigation into the potential conflict of

interest.Last week , from Hayle, Cornwall, said she would take

legal action after claiming that five of her six children had developed

autism after their MMR injections.

While the government and most of the medical establishment argue that

the vaccine is safe, research by Dr Wakefield, of the Royal Free

hospital, London, claimed the trials leading to the MMR vaccine's adoption

in Britain were too brief to detect the feared complications.

In an interview in The Sunday Times today, Liam son, the

government's chief medical officer, defends the government's refusal to

endorse separate injections in place of the MMR vaccine.

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