MHRA Board Conflicted to Hell and Back—Gates, Big Pharma, WHO, Microsoft, NHS—All Serving their Masters, not Patient Safety

Check out MHRA Board Declarations of Interest – May 2023

This will shock you to the core (note: this is recycled from November 2023)

What follows below shocked me to the core, and may well do the same for you. I’ve long been banging on about the UK being the epicentre of Gates’ global healthcare and life science empire. Part of that is his ownership of the people that are on the MHRA Board….as non-executive directors.

The MHRA Board Declarations of Interest – May 2023 shines a spotlight on the degree of conflicted and vested interests there are on the Board. You may not be surprised to read the ‘disclaimer’.

The Board and its Non-Executive Directors have no involvement in any regulatory decisions affecting medicines, medical devices or any other products or services delivered by the Agency. These decisions are the responsibility of the Chief Executive Officer, supported by the Executive Committee.

That’s the Executive Committee thrown under the bus then…

…but hang on, are they saying that the non-executive directors have no influence on the decisions taken by the Executive Committee? Judge that for yourself…

…especially when you read the below extracted from the MHRA Board Declarations of Interest – May 2023:

Dr Junaid Bajwa, Non-Executive, Director

• Microsoft Employed (Chief Medical Scientist at Microsoft Research), Shareholder

• Merck Sharp and Dohme Ex-employee shareholder

• Ondine biomedical, Non-Executive Director

• Novartis Industry Council Advisory to UK Pharma Exec UCLH, Non-Executive Director

• Whittington NHS Trust Associate Non-Executive Director

• NHS GP, Physician (Sessional)

• Nuffield Health Governor (NED)

• Nahdi Medical Corporation Non-Executive Director

• DIA Global Board Member

Amanda Calvert, Non-Executive, Director

• Astrazeneca Ex-employee shareholder, Immediate family member

• Quince Consultancy Ltd Provides consultancy services including companies in the healthcare sector.

• Athenex Pharma Quince Consultancy, providing strategic consultancy on oral oncology chemotherapy platform. ILAP applicant and Marketing Authorisation applicant.

• University of Manchester digital Experimental Cancer Medicine Team, Quince Consultancy providing strategy and data protection consultancy

• Cambridge Judge Business School, Member of Advisory Board

• Fennix Pharmaceuticals Founder of start-up company planning to develop oral chemotherapy product into Phase 2 trial. Not yet trading.

• High Value Manufacturing Catapult, Non-Executive Director

Professor Graham Cooke, Non-Executive Director & Deputy Chair

• Imperial College NHS Trust and Chelsea & Westminster NHS Foundation Trust,

• Honorary NHS Consultant NIHR NIHR Research Professor

• NIHR Influenza platform trial in the UK

• NIHR Chair DSMB (PROTECT-V trial)

• Pfizer Pneumonia study with Imperial College Healthcare Partners

• 30 Technology Ltd Consultant/Advisor

• DNAnudge Ltd Consultant/Advisor

• Seventh Sense Biosystems Consultant/Advisor

• Debevoise and Plimpton LLP Consultant/Advisor in relation to COVID protocols

• Sanofi CoV Chair of End Point Review Committee for vaccine trial

• WHO Chair of Committee for Selection and Use of Essential Medicines

Dr Paul Goldsmith, Non-Executive Director,

• Closed Loop Medicine Ltd Shareholder, director & employee; MA submission

• Summit Inc Shareholder

• Ieso Digital Health Shareholder

• MDU Ltd Director

• MDU Investments Ltd Director

• NHS Consultant Neurologist

• NHS Clinical Senate Member

• Radix Big Tent Foundation Trustee

• Sleepstation Co-founder of original programme, 2012-2014

Raj Long, Non-Executive Director

• Gates Foundation Employee – Deputy Director

• Bristol-Myers Squibb Ex-Employee Shareholder

• RESOLVE (Sustainable solutions to critical social, health, and environmental challenges) Scientific Advisory

• Novartis Ex-Employee Shareholder

• EC IMI NEURONET EC Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) Non-Product, Scientist Advisory Board

• Gates Venture – EC Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) Non-Product – IMI European platform for Neurodegenerative Disorders Advisory

• HUYA Bio Access Advisory

• PAVIA – PV Africa Board (EC Funded) Advisory Board

• WHO – Sustainable COVAX Manufacturing Strategy for Regional Health Security Advisory Expert

• UK Health Security Agency Associate Non-Executive Board Member

MHRA Leadership Team is not qualified

If that’s not enough, the CEO and Executive Committee carries the can for all decisions, and magically, they have no conflicts listed in the MHRA Board Declarations of Interest – May 2023. Sadly, however, they have not got the qualifications to do the piece they are employed to do, declared above:

Decisions are the responsibility of the Chief Executive Officer, supported by the Executive Committee.

Let’s take a deeper dive into their qualifications:

Dame June Raine DBE (Chief Executive):

“She was elected in 2012 as the first chair of the European Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee and is also co-Chair of the WHO Advisory Committee on Safety of Medicinal Products. Her special interests are in monitoring the outcomes of regulatory action, risk communication and patient involvement in the regulatory process.” Previous appointment:

“Director of Vigilance and Risk Management of Medicines, 1999 to 2019”

That means she has no experience of the approval process for medicinal products, nothing, zilch, zippo, nowt.

Hopefully, Raine’s second-in-command has a better handle on things:

Laura Squire (Chief Healthcare Quality and Access Officer)

“She has spent most of her career as a Civil Servant… She joined the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency from the Department of Health and Social Care, where she worked extensively on the COVID-19 vaccine deployment programme.”

Whoops, if it were possible, even less experience than Dame Raine.

Marc Bailey (Chief Science and Innovation Officer)

“Marc is a molecular biologist with a PhD in Pathology. Marc has had a varied career starting with academic research on infectious diseases before establishing a team developing physical standards for biotechnology at the National Physical Laboratory and then leading research into Digital Health for a multinational corporation.”

Even more deep science, without a scooby doo of the regulatory processes required to bring safe, effective products to market.

Claire Harrison (Chief Digital and Technology Officer)

No biography? Does she have one?

Alison Cave (Chief Safety Officer)

“Alison is a pharmacologist with a PhD in biochemistry. Her long career includes significant academic and regulatory experience, the latter initially at the Medicines Control Agency and then in senior roles within the Vigilance and Risk Management of Medicine Group at the MHRA and the European Medicines Agency (EMA). In addition she was Head of Cellular, Developmental and Physiological Sciences at the Wellcome Trust and most recently an Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Director at UK Research and Innovation.”

Another pharmacologist and pharmacovigilance specialist, worked at the now infamous Wellcome Trust under Jeremy Farrar’s leadership.

Glenn Wells (Chief Partnerships Officer)

“Prior to the MRC Glenn also built partnerships while working for the Oxford Academic Health Science Centre and the Wellcome Trust. In addition, Glenn developed an extensive knowledge of legal frameworks for healthcare systems through his work as a senior civil servant in DHSC delivering the Health and Social Care Act 2012.”

Another Wellcome Trust plant, courtesy Jeremy Farrar.

What should we make of this?

Well, firstly, MHRA was the world’s first regulatory authority to approve the poison jabs. People in other countries, such as the US, would be well advised to clock the link between the UK and the global launch of the gene therapies.

I’d just love to interview the MHRA ‘top team’ and expose their complete lack of knowledge, experience and any semblance of moral compass.

It’s on my Christmas list….

More to come soon.