UK Government and Big Pharma—the beginning of a 25-year love affair

UK Government and Big Pharma been sleeping together - who knew?

UK Government’s infatuation with Life Sciences

You may not know, but the UK Government has been making up to Big Pharma for nearly 25 years now. It began with the formation of the Ministerial Industry Strategy Group in 2001. This is an extract from the first meeting:

“The first meeting of the Ministerial Industry Strategy Group (MISG), a high-level group bringing together government and pharmaceutical industry representatives, was held on 21 November 2001, as part of the follow-up to the implementation of the Pharmaceutical Industry Competitiveness Task Force (PICTF) recommendations.” [Note: Page Not Found?!]

The summary to the report asserts that: “The UK pharmaceutical industry remains among the most innovative, behind the U.S.”

From then on, UK plc decided it wanted to take the number 1 slot from the U.S, setting up the Ministerial Industry Strategy Group which first met in November 2001 (during the Blair Government):

Look at the names and titles on the industry attendance list. Three industrialists from some of the then world’s largest pharmaceutical companies.

We also have Bill Fullagar, then ABPI, now “SUCKING THE NHS'S BLOOD” according to the mail in 2005:

RETIRED businessman Bill Fullagar is paid £60,000 for a three-day week by the health service.

and Trevor Jones, former Director General of the ABPI. This is an extract from Wiki on him, which I can confirm is accurate:

“From 1994 until August 2004, Jones was director general of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI)^[3] where he directed all the industry activities: government relations on behalf of the 100 national and international pharmaceutical companies. In that capacity, Jones was a member of the UK Government, on the Pharmaceutical Industry Ministerial Strategy Working Group on Pharmaceuticals, on the Board of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) and the (IFPMA). For 12 years Jones was a member of the UK Government Regulatory Agency, The Medicines Commission; an advisor to the Cabinet Office on the Human Genome Project in 2001; a member of the Prime Minister's Task force on the Competitiveness of the Pharmaceutical Industry (PICTF) and Chair of the Government Advisory Group on Genetics Research”

The full minutes can be found here:

MINISTERIAL INDUSTRY STRATEGY GROUP, WEDNESDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2001, The Cathedral Room, Richmond House

The Minutes begin:

“Welcome and Introductions

Tom McKillop welcomed everybody to the first meeting of the Ministerial Industry
Strategy Group. He said that the Pharmaceutical Industry Competitiveness Task Force
(PICTF) had been a very successful exercise for both government and industry, and it
was important to keep the momentum going.”

So, we have the CEO of AstraZeneca, a company that sold gene therapy injections to combat CONVID, chairing a Government Committee to discuss anything and everything to do with helping each other up the ladder of commercial success in the pharmaceutical industry.

Did you know that? If not, would it be worth sharing the news with friends and colleagues?

More to come soon, BTW :O)