Drugs funding continues to taint Scotland's health awards and equality remains off the menu

Nicola Sturgeon - former
Cabinet Secretary for Health

Over a year ago I blogged on how Scotland's Cabinet Secretary for Health was planning to break bread at a dinner table with company which appeared to be less than squeaky clean.  In July this year I updated the blog with this :

In a story breaking on the BBC - GlaxoSmithKline [GSK] is to pay $3bn (£1.9bn) in the largest healthcare fraud settlement in US history.  The drug giant is to plead guilty to promoting two drugs for unapproved uses and failing to report safety data about a diabetes drug to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The settlement will cover criminal fines as well as civil settlements with the federal and state governments.  The case concerns 10 drugs, including Paxil, Wellbutrin, Avandia and Advair.  Deputy US Attorney General James Cole told a news conference in Washington DC that the settlement was "unprecedented in both size and scope".

If you follow this link you will find that the 2012 Scottish Health Awards featured a category of 'Doctors Award'.  Read along the line and you will find that it was sponsored by GSK.

Last August I drew attention to reports on Pfizer's questionable drug trials in Nigeria in 1996 and the prolonged efforts by Nigerian people to get restitution.  Pfizer sponsored the 'Care for Long Term Illness Award' in the 2012 Scottish Health Awards.  

Alex Neil - Cabinet Secretary
for Health

Just last week, the Independent newspaper carried a story on major companies who pay little or no tax in the UK.  You are ahead of me.  The company featured in detail by the Independent ?  Pfizer and its best selling drug Viagra.

We may have a new Cabinet Secretary for Health in Scotland.  The reluctance to do an ethics check on those companies government chooses to share a dinner table with remains unchanged.

I can also report that a couple of years ago an award for work in the NHS on equalities was allowed to slip of the menu.  It remains off the menu.