[Ip-health] Petition Against the Appointment of the VP of Pfizer Canada to CIHR Governing Council

[Matthew Herder]

[ Converted text/html to text/plain ]
Please post this to IP Health as soon as possible. We are up against a Nov.
30th deadline.
Thank you,
Matthew Herder
Kauffman Fellow, NYU School of Law
Please consider signing onto a petition against the appointment of the VP o=
f
Pfizer Canada to Canadian Institutes of Health Research Governing Council.
You can sign the petition here:
http://gopetition.com/online/32371.html
Background information is provided below:
In October 2009, Dr. Bernard Prigent, Vice President and Medical Director o=
f
Pfizer Canada was appointed to the Governing Council of the Canadian
Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The CIHR Governing Council is
responsible for setting the policy, directions, and strategies for publicly
funded health research in Canada. This appointment is indefensible.
CIHR has a mandate to promote, assist and undertake research that meets the
highest international scientific standards of excellence and ethics. Pfizer
has a well-documented history of transgressions against the integrity of
science. It has been widely reported that since 2002 it has paid four
substantial fines (the last being $2.3 billion) for legal/ethical violation=
s.
It is both empirically and symbolically troublesome that an official of a
company renowned for its egregious behaviour would be honoured with an
appointment to the CIHR Governing Council.
CIHR also has a mandate to facilitate the commercialization of health resea=
rch
and promote economic development through health research. Until now, this
mandate has been met by including members of the business sector (but not t=
he
pharmaceutical industry) on Governing Council and by consulting with the
pharmaceutical industry on an as-needed basis. This approach has allowed CI=
HR
to access the expertise needed without embracing unmanageable conflicts of
interest at its governance table =E2=80=93 frequently, the interests of the
pharmaceutical industry are not and cannot be aligned with the interests of
the public. The appointment of any individual who is an active member of a
pharmaceutical company therefore cannot be justified by reference to the
commercialization mandate.
Petition:
We, the undersigned, call for the withdrawal of the appointment of Dr. Bern=
ard
Prigent, Vice President and Medical Director of Pfizer Canada to the CIHR
Governing Council.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
---