An In-Depth Analysis of the “Summary Report - CIHR

and MS Society of Canada Joint Invitational Meeting on

Multiple Sclerosis Research

Dr. Ashton Embry, Direct-MS,

September 10, 2010

A detailed analysis of the recently released CIHR/MSSOC Report on CCSVI and

Multiple Sclerosis (Beaudet Report) has found that the report contains many

scientific errors and unsupported opinions. The serious scientific failings which

permeate the Beaudet Report are painstakingly documented in over nine pages

of text in the In-Depth Analysis.

An even larger and more serious problem with the Beaudet Report are the overt

and most disconcerting ethical breeches. These ethical breeches include:

1. The committee organizers used an incredibly biased committee member

selection process such that that no scientists or practitioners with

expertise, knowledge and/or experience with CCSVI and MS were allowed

on the Beaudet Committee

2. The majority of the Committee members (13/23) have an obvious conflict

of interest when it comes to evaluating the need for a clinical trial to test

the efficacy of a non-drug therapy for MS such as CCSVI treatment. Such

a conflict of interest takes the form of close ties, often financial, with the

pharmaceutical companies that manufacture and market the drugs that

are currently used for MS. Such ties are meticulously documented in the

Appendix of the In-Depth Analysis.

3. The conflicts of interest were not declared or even alluded to in the

Beaudet Report

4. The committee members with a conflict of interest did not recuse

themselves when it became obvious that CCSVI and the question of a

CCSVI treatment clinical trial were going to dominate the discussions by

the Committee. In fact, the compromised individuals strongly influenced

the final recommendations of the committee.

The highly flawed science, in combination with the serious ethical breeches of

the Beaudet Report, completely invalidates its recommendations. Given the

above the Federal Health Ministry needs to:

1. Convene a new expert committee to examine and make recommendations

on the need for a clinical trial to test the efficacy of CCSVI treatment for

MS. The committee should be populated by both scientists and

practitioners with expertise and experience with CCSVI and MS and

scientists with experience in related topics such as venous angioplasty in

other conditions, the neurovascular system, neuro-imaging and MS

disease pathogenesis. Every effort should be made to exclude individuals

with a clear conflict of interest related to past and/or present relationships

with the pharmaceutical industry.

2. Launch an investigation into the ethical breeches of the Beaudet Report

and determine how such a scientifically inappropriate and ethically

challenged committee came into existence in the first place.

3. Review the appropriateness of having Alain Beaudet lead the Canadian

Institutes of Health Research. Canadians need to have confidence in their

health leaders and Beaudet’s credibility has been destroyed by the

scientific failings and the ethical breeches of the committee he formed and

the report he wrote on a most important health issue.