Pharmaceutical industry representation on CIHR’s governing council

In today’s open Medicine, steven Lewis brings forth provocative commentary on the appointment of Dr. Bernard Prigent, vice-president of medical affairs for Pfizer Canada, to the governing council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). He outlines a number of arguments against the appointment that centre around conflict of interest, and places a spotlight on the diverging agendas of pharmaceutical companies (whose primary obligation is to serve their shareholders) and CIHR (which must, as a publicly funded institution, serve the public interest). He recounts notable dark episodes when public safety was compromised by products that were highly profitable for pharmaceutical companies, and expresses the general concern that Dr. Prigent’s appointment heralds a new era of potentially troubling industry influence on Canada’s health research agenda. Lewis is not alone in his views: between November 25 and December 25, 2009, over 4300 people signed an online petition calling for the withdrawal of the appointment (http://gopetition.com/online/32371/signatures.html). Vocal concern led to a review of the appointment in two hearings by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health; after spirited debate, a motion to recommend the withdrawal of the appointment was defeated. As the defeat shows, there are also defenders of the appointment, and they range beyond the members of the Standing Committee. To broaden our readers’ understanding of the debate, Open Medicine invited the president of the CIHR, Dr. Alain Beaudet, who recommended Dr. Prigent for the appointment, to provide a commentary to accompany Lewis’s article. Karen Spierkel, CIHR’s director of communications and public outreach, provided an official response for the agency that highlighted the following points (quoted directly):