A letter dated Oct 2003 from Dr. Uffe Ravnskov about the
creation of the American and Canadian heart guidelines.
Along with Shannon Brownlee's article Doctors Without
Borders (Cloud Cuckoo Land)of another thread) a most worthy
bookend for our growing collection which includes, but is
not limited to, The LA Times NIH graft series, the David
Sackett HARLOT BMJ article--tres amusent n'est pas--all of
the May 31 2003 BMJ, the cbc.ca/marketplace program on
medical ghostwriting, the whole of www.nofreelunch.org...
B'adant
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"A friend of mine sent me your article about the new
Canadian guidelines. Evidently the Canadian authorities have
bought the new American ones uncritically.
Here is a summary of the way these guidelines were created:
1. A small group of private individuals come together and
call themselves the "Expert Panel."
2. These people receive large sums of money from
pharmeceutical companies to give talks, do research, etc.
3. The Expert Panel rewrites the guidelines and issue them
with the apparent endorsement of the federal government.
4. Thirty million more Americans now need to be on cholesterol-
lowering drugs.
5. Insurance companies, Medicare, etc. pay the
pharmeceutical companies billions of dollars a year for
those drugs.
Here is the list of commitments for the members of the
expert panel:
Financial Disclosure: Dr Grundy has received honoraria from
Merck, Pfizer, Sankyo, Bayer, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Dr Hunninghake has current grants from Merck, Pfizer, Kos
Pharmaceuticals, Schering Plough, Wyeth Ayerst, Sankyo,
Bayer, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and G. D. Searle.
He has also received consulting honoraria from Merck,
Pfizer, Kos Pharmaceuticals, Sankyo, AstraZeneca, and Bayer.
Dr McBride has received grants and/or research support from
Pfizer, Merck, Parke-Davis, and AstraZeneca; has served as a
consultant for Kos Pharmaceuticals, Abbott, and Merck; and
has received honoraria from Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb,
Novartis, Merck, Kos Pharmaceuticals, Parke-Davis, Pfizer,
and DuPont. Dr Pasternak has served as a consultant for and
received honoraria from Merck, Pfizer, and Kos
Pharmaceuticals, and has received grants from Merck and
Pfizer. Dr Stone has served as a consultant and/or received
honoraria for lectures from Abbott, Bayer, Bristol-Myers
Squibb, Kos Pharmaceuticals, Merck, Novartis, Parke-
Davis/Pfizer, and Sankyo. Dr Schwartz has served as a
consultant for and/or conducted research funded by Bristol-
Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Merck, Johnson & Johnson-Merck,
and Pfizer.
Read also my comments to the American guidelines on
ravnskov.nuncep guidelines.htmOpen ↗
Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD; independent researcher