Author: david

How secrecy in medical research harms our health

By David Hammerstein, Senior Advisor on intellectual property for the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue in Brussels. Medical research data remain shrouded in secrecy. As a result the data is distorted and misrepresented by pharmaceutical companies launching new medicines to exaggerate their…

Opening up medical research data for our health

“They swallowed our story, hook, line and sinker”, wrote in an e-mail the research and development director of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer after having successfully presented the new arthritis drug Celebrex, concealing the secondary effects shown in Pfizer´s own research…

SOS open access to scientific publications

  The majority of EU citizens want open access to scientific publications when research has been financed by taxpayers. We ask the European Parliament to defend this call in defence of scientific advancement and the public interest. Proposals for open…