Dear Canadian friends---

I believe it is of the utmost importance that you understand who is making health care decisions for you.

There are several things you need to know about the president of the CIHR---all of this information is public record.

Dr. Alain Beaudet, President , Canadian Institutes of Health Research  Ottawa, ON 

Here is some press about Dr. Beaudet's appointment:

"The Canadian Institutes of Health Research has named Montreal physician Alain Beaudet as its new president, effective July 1st.  Beaudet is currently president and CEO of the Québec government's medical research funding agency, called Fonds de La Recherche en Santé Québec, or FRSQ. He takes over for acting president Pierre Chartrand, who has been filling in since CIHR head Alan Bernstein resigned in October to serve as executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise.

Dr. Beaudet served as CEO of FRSQ--

Here is the website for FRSQ--the research funding agency that Beaudet worked for as CEO and President:

http://www.frsq.gouv.qc.ca/en/index.shtml

Note that Pfizer, the world's largest drug company (marketer of Rebif, maker of Neurontin, Zoloft, Lipitor) is one of the most important partners of the FRSQ--

http://www.frsq.gouv.qc.ca/en/financement/Programmes_2009_2010/s17_fiche.shtml

http://www.frsq.gouv.qc.ca/en/financement/programmes/programmes_2009_2010.shtml

Managing of chronic illnesses is one area where research is funded by Pfizer

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Here is a press release regarding the FRSQ working with pharma to help chronic pain--

Dr. Beaudet set up the first-ever collaboration between pharma and the Social Services Ministry.

"Two of Canada’s leading pharmaceutical companies are joining forces with the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ) and Quebec’s Health and Social Services Ministry (MSSS) to help in the battle against chronic pain and give a boost to Quebec’s pain researchers and clinics affiliated with Quebec’s four medical-research universities.

The partnership – a first in Canada – is designed to strengthen what is already the country’s leading pain research and treatment network, the Quebec Pain Research Network (QPRN), which links pain clinics at Quebec’s four university-hospital networks and more than 75 doctors and researchers specialized in chronic pain.

Under the partnership, Pfizer Canada, AstraZeneca, the FRSQ and MSSS will provide $4.35 million over four years to fund research and education that will improve our understanding of chronic pain and help doctors diagnose and treat pain more effectively."

“The battle against chronic pain is really a collective effort uniting researchers in the public and private sectors, front-line medical professionals and patients themselves,” said Alain Beaudet, President and CEO of the FRSQ. In leading the partnership, the FRSQ’s goal is to support Quebec’s pain research, particularly to advance understanding of prevalence, incidence and the natural course of different pain syndromes, and to ensure that this knowledge is transferred to the clinic to benefit patients.

“This initiative takes us to the next level by bringing our research knowledge and excellence onto the front-lines to help doctors and patients manage pain more effectively,” Beaudet said.

http://www.pfizer.ca/en/media_centre/news_releases/article?year=2008&article=259

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Here's a picture of Dr. Beaudet with his industry partners, at a pharmaceutical convention in San Diego-

Again, Dr. Beaudet establishes a FIRST in Canada--the Quebec Consortium for Drug Discovery!!

http://www.merckfrosst.ca/mfcl/en/corporate/newsroom/corporate_news/20080617_bio_2008.html

"At the prestigious BIO 2008 conference under way this week in San Diego, Raymond Bachand, Québec Minister of Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade (MDEIE), Minister of Tourism and Minister responsible for the Montréal Region; Paul Lévesque, President and Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer Canada; Mark S. Jones, President and Chief Executive Officer of AstraZeneca Canada; and Dawn Graham, President, Merck Frosst Canada, announced the creation of the Québec Consortium for Drug Discovery (CQDM). They were accompanied by Dr. Alain Beaudet, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ), the province's public-sector health research funding agency, and by Mr. Max Fehlmann, director of CQDM.

This consortium, a first in Canada, is dedicated to stimulating research into drug development in Québec, with a focus on the pre-competitive stages-which represent a critical step in the process. By bringing together eminent scientists from industry, university, hospital and government circles, the CQDM will foster synergy between university and industry research. The resulting collaborative network will help create tools that are better adapted to the development of safer and more effective drugs."

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This next connection to the pharmaceutical industry comes from published analysis of the Canadian conflicts of interest in the CIHR--note the mention of Pfizer once again--

one of Dr. Beaudet's first appointments was the vice-president of Pfizer to the CIHR governing council-

The entire paper, published in Open Medicine can be accessed here:

http://www.openmedicine.ca/article/download/371/337.

"The appointment of Dr. Bernard Prigent, vice-president of Pfizer Canada, to CIHR’s governing Council—the first pharmaceutical representative to be so appointed 25–29—ands tatements by CIHR president Dr.  

 Alain Beaudet in the context of this appointment, emphasizing the need to intensify collaboration and even to align CIHR’s “agenda” and “vision” with the pharmaceutical industry,30 do raise the question whether CIHR remains sufficiently independent from industry to operatet he DSEN.As one of us(TL)suggested at a hearing of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health related to this appointment, Dr. Beaudet’s justifications provided in support of this appointment are worrisome rather than reassuring.31 Steven Lewis has remarked on this appointment that “

Pfizer has an obvious interest in the flow of CIHR funds to science that may lead to drug development, and an obvious interest in diverting CIHR funds away from science that may reveal the comparative ineffectiveness of one of its drugs or challenge the pharmacological therapeutic paradigm.”28

We therefore recommend that CIHR and the minister of health, to whom CIHR reports, carefully evaluate the impact of such appointments and of increased collaboration withindustry on the DSEN, and ensure its continuing independence."

Here are other reports outlining the conflict of interest in the appointment of a Pfizer executive to the CIHR---

Abstract 

The appointment of Dr. Bernard Prigent, vice-president and medical director of Pfizer Canada, to the Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, outraged many Canadian health researchers. Pfizer has been a "habitual offender," persistently engaging in illegal and corrupt marketing practices, bribing physicians and suppressing adverse trial results.

Since 2002 the company and its subsidiaries have been assessed $3 billion in criminal convictions, civil penalties and jury awards. The $2.3-billion settlement in September 2009 – a month before Dr. Prigent's appointment – set a new record for both criminal fines and total penalties. A link with Pfizer might well advance the commercialization of Canadian research – unhindered by law or morality. Is that now the only mandate, Dr. Beaudet?

http://www.noveltechethics.ca/site_beyond_newsdetail.php?news=147&page=6

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And here is a story about Dr. Bernard Prigent, the inside man for Pfizer---who turned out to be a LOBBYIST for the pharma company--

http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/bernard-prijent-pfizers-inside-man/Content?oid=1503474

"But the parliamentary committee did not have a crucial piece of evidence: not only is Prigent a vice president of Pfizer, but he is also a registered lobbyist for Pfizer. That information is only now coming to light, and has never been previously reported. According to the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada, the government agency that regulates lobbyists, Prigent's position as Pfizer lobbyist is to sway policy at the "Canadian Institute of Health Researchers (CIHR) and other Research Oriented Spending Programs as it relates to private/public research and development partnerships," and Prigent is to achieve these aims through both oral and written techniques.

In other words, Prigent the Pfizer lobbyist is paid to lobby Prigent the CIHR official."

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The next big area of pharmaceutical development is Neurodegeneration.  

This includes Alzheimers, Parkinsons, MS, dementia, ALS and other similar diseases.

 If CCSVI is proven in clinical trials, then a new world of medical investigation will explode---that of neurodegenerative diseases related to blood flow.  

The pharmaceutical companies realize that this is only the beginning....that CCSVI research will lead to more conclusive evidence of the connection, and they do not want vascular doctors looking at bloodflow and attempting to fix it.

They want you to take a pill.

http://www.pfizerneuroscience.com/

We have been discussing the importance of objectivity in science and freedom from the constraints of pharmaceutical influences in medical research.  I am not Canadian, but just one afternoon of googling has provided me with enough information to make my stomach turn.  Canadian investigative journalists, Canadian ethics committees, Canadian people---I ask you, what's the next step?

Joan