More transparency in the pharmaceutical industry

Whistleblower Network: More transparency in the pharmaceutical industry is overdue!

Whistleblower Network: More transparency in the pharmaceutical industry is overdue!

Strengthening of an independent IQWiG and more transparency in the pharmaceutical industry are the demands of the whistleblower network in a letter to Federal Health Minister. Philipp Rösler. An essential instrument for this could be the creation of a special legal whistleblower protection for insiders in the pharmaceutical and medical sector.

Since 2004, the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG), which investigates the actual benefits of medicines, has also provided a bit more transparency. But IQWiG does not yet have the tools it needs to have effective control across the board. As Mirror online on November 25, 2009 * reported, for example, interfere with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer its work. The pattern: Negative results of drug investigations of the pharmaceutical companies are concealed for cost reasons and study data kept under wraps. The damage is to patients and health care, which is burdened with the costs of wrong treatment and sequelae.

Whistleblower Network e.V. supports IQWiG's call for an effective EU-wide commitment to publish the results of all clinical trials and the memorandum of the German Society for Social Psychiatry. The memorandum addresses this structural corruption in health care and biological reductionism in psychiatry and calls for transparency rules in the disclosure of conflicts of interest between medicine and the pharmaceutical industry.

In addition, according to the whistleblower network, pharmaceutical addicts who point out breaches of those new transparency regimes or other breaches of the law and unethical behavior of the pharmaceutical industry should have an independent point of contact in the future. „We urgently need an independent institution that can take evidence, conduct necessary investigations and provide effective sanctions for breaking the law. Whistleblowers, ie insiders who provide relevant information, must be protected.“, it says in the letter to Federal Minister Rösler. An example could be the USA, where Pfizer recently had to pay $ 2.3 billion due to the concealment of serious side effects of an anti-psychotic for dementia patients due to the hint of several whistleblowers.

In Germany, however, even the first attempts to increase transparency seem threatened, because according to recent reports, the new federal government is currently in the search for a more industry-friendly candidate at the head of the - allegedly independent - IQWiG. If this succeeds, the Pharmalobby should again have a reason to celebrate and who pays the bill, is already fixed.

Derist is an initiative for whistleblower protection founded in 2006. Whistleblowing creates transparency and thus helps in the many topics against breaches of law, corruption, health and environmental damage. Nevertheless, whistleblowers are exposed to high personal risks. The non-profit association is therefore committed to a climate of open dialogue and seeks to improve the framework conditions for whistleblowers in business, government and society. The club advises whistleblowers, and those who could become. He also networks them with potential supporters. (02.12.2009)