Medical research and scientific publications driven by vested interests?
A case study: CCSVI and Multiple Sclerosis.

Bocchino, Antonello Bocchino,
University of Westminster, United Kingdom
This presentation will examine the ways in which medical publications are used to selectively highlight research that appears to align with vested capitalist interests, in particular, pharmaceutical companies. My presentation will focus on a case study involving the discovery of Chronic Cerebro-Spinal Venous Insufficiency (CCSVI) as a potential cause for Multiple Sclerosis (MS), which offers the possibility of a non-pharmaceutical treatment option. I will consider the way this discovery has been treated in the media and in institutional communications. Among others, I will review the case of an article published in The Lancet in 2013, which called into question data from clinical studies demonstrating the prevalence of CCSVI in MS patients. One of the leading doctors from the study that had been challenged, submitted a comment in response, which The Lancet declined, instead choosing to publish comments which claim to “close the curtain” on this non-pharmaceutical treatment option. http://programme.esa12thconference.eu/presentation/4359