The End of Scientific Integrity? Cochrane Collaboration Expels Critic of Big Pharma – 4 Other Board Members Resign

Dr. Peter Gøtzsche recently sent out an email to the public explaining that he is the first person in 25 years to be expelled from the Cochrane Collaboration. He writes: "No clear reasoned justification has been given for my expulsion aside from accusing me of causing 'disrepute' for the organization. This is the first time in 25 years that a member has been excluded from membership of Cochrane." Four other board members have resigned from the Cochrane Collaboration as a result of this action. Health Impact News has covered the work of Dr. Gøtzsche frequently over the years, as he is an outspoken critic of Big Pharma, referring to them as "organized crime." He is author of the book, "Deadly Medicines and Organized Crime: How big pharma has corrupted healthcare." The Cochrane Collaboration is considered to be the "gold standard" in scientific integrity, but they have come under fire recently for what appears to be biased reviews influenced by the pharmaceutical industry. They received a $1.15 million "gift" from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to fund "project work" from 2016 to 2017. Earlier this year (2018), researchers from the Nordic Cochrane Centre published a critique in the British Medical Journal stating that the Cochrane’s review of the HPV vaccine "does not meet the standards for Cochrane reviews or the needs of the citizens or healthcare providers that consult Cochrane reviews to make informed decisions."

HPV Vaccine Scandal Affects Cochrane Biased Review as Critics Speak Out in BMJ

In May 2018, Cochrane, the research organization that bills itself as the “international gold standard for high quality, trusted information,” released a flattering review of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines. The Cochrane review methodology involves pulling together data from clinical trials and reviewing the assembled evidence in what is supposed to be a standardized, systematic and neutral manner. In June, we reported that Cochrane’s sources of funding—agencies and foundations that are unwilling to brook any questions about vaccine safety—raise reasonable doubts about Cochrane’s conflicts of interest and ability to remain independent from its funders’ agendas. Now, researchers affiliated with one of Cochrane’s regional member centers (the Nordic Cochrane Centre) and with the Oxford-based Centre for Evidence Based Medicine (OCEBM) have come out with an exhaustive critique of Cochrane’s HPV review, published in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine. Not mincing their words, the authors state: "We believe that the Cochrane [HPV vaccine] review does not meet the standards for Cochrane reviews or the needs of the citizens or healthcare providers that consult Cochrane reviews to make ‘Informed decisions,’ which…is part of Cochrane’s motto." The Nordic and OCEBM authors make many solid arguments about the Cochrane reviewers’ omissions and errors, including the reviewers’ inexplicable characterization of the higher death rate in the HPV group as “a chance occurrence.”