The pharmaceutical industry has a history of seeking to undermine those who dare to raise questions that it perceives as contrary to its interests.
You only have to think of how the industry targeted the respected academic David Henry some years back, exerting its influence to have him removed from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee.
In 2001, a senior executive at Roche Products told me that sections of the industry - not his company - had “absolutely” waged a campaign against the PBAC and key individuals such as David Henry.
So the news, reported in today’s Crikey, that CSL has been exercising its muscle at the University of Queensland is not so surprising, perhaps. The top brass have come down hard on Andrew Gunn, a GP and academic, who had the temerity to raise some rather mild questions about Gardasil, the cervical cancer vaccine jointly developed by the University and CSL.
What is surprising, even alarming, is how badly the University has handled the case. It has left itself wide open to the charge that it’s succumbed to a conflict of interest because of the millions it makes from the vaccine’s sales.
It makes me wonder, is this a broader problem? Is academic freedom also under threat elsewhere? Does it matter?