Conflicts of Interest

Interests of CDC/IDSA members in vaccine trials, patents, test kits and consulting fees

*Vaccines are a huge business today and a main focus of many IDSA members. The big money is on vaccinating everyone who goes outside in the summer every year with a series of vaccinations, not selling a $4 prescription of off-patent Doxycycline for people who get tick bites.

*To be successful commercially, vaccines must pass rigorous clinical trials, which brings in funds to participating universities.

*By narrowing the definition of the Lyme disease, vaccine trial participants were able to artificially increase the apparent efficacy of tests and vaccines.

*The label insert for the vaccine, in fact, indicated that the effectiveness of the vaccines depended upon the use of a restrictive definition of Lyme disease.

*IDSA members have been involved in consulting for vaccine companies, running the clinical trials for the vaccines, or developing diagnostic tests tied to the vaccines, or have worked for academic institutions which held large patents underlying the vaccines.

Pharmaceutical Interests of the IDSA

*50% of the 272 speakers at the October 2009 IDSA annual meeting who disclosed conflicts, had ties to one or more of the five leading vaccine companies: Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi Pasteur, Wyeth, and Novartis.