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[News] [Rival] Pharmaceutical Giants Corrupt Research, Bill Gates Employs and Invests in Their Patents

  • Subject: [News] [Rival] Pharmaceutical Giants Corrupt Research, Bill Gates Employs and Invests in Their Patents
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2010 23:57:43 +0100
  • Followup-to: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
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âGates has created a huge blood-buying operation that only cares about money, not about people.â

  --AIDS organisation manager, December 2009 (New York Times)

Report condemns swine flu experts' ties to big pharma

,----[ Quote ]
| Scientists who drew up the key World 
| Health Organisation guidelines advising 
| governments to stockpile drugs in the 
| event of a flu pandemic had previously 
| been paid by drug companies which stood to 
| profit, according to a report out today.
| 
| An investigation by the British Medical 
| Journal and the Bureau of Investigative 
| Journalism, the not-for-profit reporting 
| unit, shows that WHO guidance issued in 
| 2004 was authored by three scientists who 
| had previously received payment for other 
| work from Roche, which makes Tamiflu, and 
| GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), manufacturer of 
| Relenza.
| 
| City analysts say that pharmaceutical 
| companies banked more than $7bn (Â4.8bn) 
| as governments stockpiled drugs. The issue 
| of transparency has risen to the forefront 
| of public health debate after dramatic 
| predictions last year about a swine flu 
| pandemic did not come true.
`----

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jun/04/swine-flu-experts-big-pharmaceutical

Bill Gates Nudges Drugmakers to Share Research

,----[ Quote ]
| The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was a 
| driving force behind GlaxoSmithKline Plc's 
| decision to share propietary drug research 
| for fighting malaria, the Puget Sound 
| Business Journal reports.
`----

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/heavy-doses/2010/05/30/bill-gates-nudges-drug-makers-to-share-research

The Gates Foundation and "all the people who are smart about the disease" 

,----[ Quote ]
| Read this carefully: "so that all the 
| people who are smart about the disease are 
| to some degree on the same side, working 
| together.â Here is a fatal flaw. Gates 
| thinks that you can define "all the people 
| who are smart about the disease" and 
| invite them to work together. He and his 
| staff wouldn't know how to begin to find 
| "all the people". They are elite 
| technocrats. How many people LIVING with 
| the disease are working together on his 
| elite panels?
`----

http://gateskeepers.civiblog.org/blog/_archives/2010/6/1/4541898.html

The philanthropic bias

,----[ Quote ]
| Gates really, really likes the idea of 
| using vertical funds to tackle (and 
| eliminated) diseases one by one, rather 
| than taking a more gradual, measured 
| approach. Why do the big philanthropists 
| (Gates, and by proxy, Buffet) prefer to 
| take such a direct approach, circumventing 
| governments?
| 
| The easiest explanation is through 
| personality or experience: Gates is an 
| entrepreneur, used to getting smart people 
| in a room together to solve problems; 
| private solutions for important problems. 
| Governments have, if anything, been a 
| source of irritation for him, lobbing the 
| occasional anti-trust action at Microsoft.
| 
| [...]
| 
| I think itâs probably unrealistic to 
| expect the Gates Foundation to start up a 
| health SWAp anytime soon â the same 
| factors that led to its creation will 
| always drive it to tackle problems the way 
| it does. What we should hope (and push) 
| for is a commitment to âdo no harm.â This 
| means reverting to practices that do not 
| distort health objectives on the ground 
| (i.e. internal brain drain of qualified 
| health staff, shifting the debate away 
| from enforcing health systems to tackling 
| single diseases). Working on vaccines, 
| either through direct funding or advance 
| market commitments, is a an example of 
| high risk but less distortionary practice. 
| The huge sums of money the Foundation 
| juggles could also be used to create 
| incentives for more general research into 
| fighting tropical maladies, and then 
| subsequently subsidise the price for needy 
| countries.
`----

http://aidthoughts.org/?p=1226


Recent:

Pfizer Hit With $141 Million RICO Penalty Over Neurontin Promotion

,----[ Quote ]
| Pfizer Inc. has been socked with an eye-
| popping $141 million penalty for
| unlawfully promoting its epilepsy drug
| Neurontin for unapproved uses for which,
| the plaintiffs said, it didn't even work.
|
| A federal jury in Boston on Thursday
| concluded that the pharmaceutical giant
| had violated federal racketeering laws in
| promoting the drug for so-called off-label
| uses that were ineffective. The jury's
| verdict was actually $47 million, but the
| penalty was automatically tripled under
| the federal Racketeer Influenced and
| Corrupt Organizations Act.
`----

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202446920424&Pfizer_Hit_With__Million_RICO_Penalty_Over_Neurontin_Promotion


Pfizer Pays Out Millions to Doctors

,----[ Quote ]
| Pfizer, the world's biggest drug company,
| says it paid 4,500 doctors and other
| medical professionals about $20 million
| total in professional fees for services
| like consulting and speaking on behalf of
| the company, in just the last six months
| of 2009. During the same period, Pfizer
| also paid $15.3 million to 250 academic
| medical centers and other research groups
| for clinical trials. The payments to
| medical professionals were required by an
| agreement the company signed last August
| to settle a federal investigation into the
| illegal promotion of drugs for off-label
| use.
`----

http://www.prwatch.org/node/8989


Merck exec to be Gates Foundation CFO

,----[ Quote ]
| A former Merck & Co Inc (MRK.N) executive
| is to be the new chief financial officer
| of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
| one of the world's largest philanthropic
| organizations.
`----

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN3120892820100331


Merck executive is new Gates Foundation CFO

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14794193


Merck executive is new Gates Foundation CFO

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9EPRKNO0.htm


Gates Foundation names Henriques new CFO

http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2010/03/29/daily25.html


Merck executive is new Gates Foundation CFO

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ivf7W93qreEFlnsJ7WynQaubEkmgD9EPRJLG0


Gates Foundation names Merck veteran as new CFO

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thebusinessofgiving/2011493528_gates_foundation_names_new_chi.html


Pharmaceutical Chief Will Take Over Gates Foundation's Finances

http://philanthropy.com/blogPost/Pharmaceutical-Chief-Will-Take/22199/


Merck executive Richard Henriques will be new Gates Foundation CFO

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-gates-foundation-cfo,0,1744598.story


AIDS âNext Big Thingâ: Gilead Pill to Prevent Spread

,----[ Quote ]
| If the tests are successful, PrEP
| distribution programs could begin in
| developing countries in 2012, said Bill
| Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corp. and
| the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, both
| of Seattle. He spoke to the U.S. Senate
| Foreign Relations Committee about global
| health priorities on March 10. The Gates
| Foundation is sponsoring three PrEP
| trials.
`----

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-01/aids-next-big-thing-gilead-pill-to-prevent-spread-update1-.html


HIV drugs tested for ability to prevent infection
,----[ Quote ]
| If the tests are successful, PrEP
| distribution programs could begin in
| developing countries in 2012, said Bill
| Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and the
| Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates
| Foundation is sponsoring three PrEP
| trials.
`----

http://www.northjersey.com/news/health/89860237_HIV_drugs_tested_for_ability_to_prevent_infection.html


AP INVESTIGATION: Monsanto seed biz role revealed

,----[ Quote ]
| Confidential contracts detailing Monsanto
| Co.'s business practices reveal how the
| world's biggest seed developer is
| squeezing competitors, controlling smaller
| seed companies and protecting its
| dominance over the multibillion-dollar
| market for genetically altered crops, an
| Associated Press investigation has found.
`----

http://www.ajc.com/business/ap-investigation-monsanto-seed-240072.html


KEI Statement on UNITAID Decision to Approve Creation of a Patent Pool for AIDS medicines

,----[ Quote ]
| A number of NGOs have recently raised
| important criticisms about the patent pool
| and the process, and as the pool moves
| forward it is important to expand the
| transparency of the patent pool
| initiative, and to ensure that all patient
| and public health groups, generic drug
| producers, academic experts, governments
| and other concerned about, interested in
| and impacted by the pool will have the
| effective opportunity to review, comment
| and influence outcomes, including the many
| policy decisions will be made in the next
| 12 months.
`----

http://keionline.org/dec14unitaid


One in a billion takes action against the Gates Foundation in China

http://gateskeepers.civiblog.org/blog/_archives/2009/12/16/4405781.html


Monsoft or Microsanto?

,----[ Quote ]
| Amazingly, David Boies, the lawyer that
| led the attack on Microsoft during that
| investigation, is also invovled: he is
| representing Du Pont, one of Monsanto's
| rivals concerned about the latter's
| monopoly power.
|
| Let's just hope that Monsanto becomes the
| subject of a full anti-trust action, and
| that the result is more effective than
| that applied to Microsoft. After all,
| we're not talking about software here, but
| the world's food supply, and monopolies -
| both intellectual and otherwise - are
| simply morally indefensible when billions
| of lives are stake.
`----

http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/12/monsoft-or-microsanto.html


AP INVESTIGATION: Monsanto seed biz role revealed

,----[ Quote ]
| Confidential contracts detailing Monsanto
| Co.'s business practices reveal how the
| world's biggest seed developer is
| squeezing competitors, controlling smaller
| seed companies and protecting its
| dominance over the multibillion-dollar
| market for genetically altered crops, an
| Associated Press investigation has found.
`----

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/AP-INVESTIGATION-Monsanto-apf-1335374142.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=2&asset=&ccode=


AP INVESTIGATION: Monsanto seed biz role revealed

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8855598


How Monsanto owns and manipulates the world's food supply

,----[ Quote ]
| Steve Silberman sends us "A major AP
| expose of how Monsanto uses secret
| licensing agreements for its genetically
| manipulated crops to squeeze smaller seed
| companies, lock out competition, and keep
| food prices high.".
`----

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/13/how-monsanto-owns-an.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boingboing%2FiBag+%28Boing+Boing%29


The Gates Foundationâs agriculture program: experimenting or floundering?

,----[ Quote ]
| Hereâs what we know about the Gates
| Foundationâs agriculture program:
|
|     * Gates believes itâs suggestive that
|     âApart from a few states and small, oil-
|     rich countries, no country has managed a
|     rapid rise from poverty without
|     increasing agricultural productivity. In
|     the poorest countries, agriculture
|     employs a majority of the people.â
|     * This isnât a new argument or an
|     undisputed one. See Peter Timmer on
|     Green Revolution âoptimistsâ vs.
|     âpessimistsâ.
|     * Gatesâs approach is âcomprehensive,â
|     targets âno single, simple solutionâ,
|     and includes farmer training/support,
|     irrigation initiatives, market access
|     initiatives, and funding of agricultural
|     research with a focus on gender
|     empowerment.
|     * This isnât a new approach or a
|     historically successful one. The World
|     Bank has focused on essentially the same
|     set of interventions recently, with
|     unclear results, and the previous
|     âholisticâ approach of âIntegrated Rural
|     Developmentâ is widely considered to
|     have failed. Details at our overview of
|     agriculture aid.
|
| In other words, the Gates Foundation
| approach â as described â appears to be
| neither a continuation of things that have
| worked before nor a fundamentally new
| approach to the problem. So what might be
| different this time around?
`----

http://blog.givewell.net/?p=437


Kenya: Gates Foundation and Monsanto to Develop Genetically
Modified Seeds for Small Farmers

,----[ Quote ]
| Many of the emotionally charged headlines
| that drive Africaâs food security debate
| are intricately connected to the critical
| and complex Kenyan seed industry: Kenya is
| the second largest seed consumer in sub-
| Saharan Africa, and a key driver of
| agricultural research on the continent. For
| decades, donors and private interests have
| been funneling millions of dollars into the
| Kenya Agricultural Research Institute
| (KARI), in an effort to develop new plant
| varieties that can repel pests, withstand
| disease and produce higher yields.
|
| KARI is now one of the main partners in a
| new programme funded by the Gates
| Foundation that will attempt to develop
| genetically modified (GM) maize that can
| withstand drought. The plan is to
| distribute the seeds to small farmers in
| Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania
| and Uganda. The technology is coming from
| Monsanto, the American corporate seed giant
| that does a lot of work for the Gates
| Foundation in Africa. Normally Monsantoâs
| patented seeds come at a high price, which
| has inspired an endless stream of vitriol
| from activists who accuse the company of
| exploiting poor farmers for obscene
| profits. This time, farmers will receive
| the seeds royalty free â indefinitely â as
| part of Gatesâ push for a âgreen
| revolutionâ in Africa.
`----

http://www.ratio-magazine.com/200911261425/Kenya/Kenya-Gates-Foundation-and-Monsanto-to-Develop-Genetically-Modified-Seeds-for-Small-Farmers.html


Kenya: Gates Foundation and Monsanto to develop GM seeds for small farmers

http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=54698
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