BLOGSCAN - "AIDS Pundits and Ties to Big Pharma"

On the Hooked: Ethics, Medicine and Pharma blog, Dr Howard Brody wrote about his discovery of a web-site entitled, "AIDS Pundits and Ties to Big Pharma," or by its more economic URL, www.shillfactor.net. The site catalogs, with a degree of sarcasm, the multitudinous financial ties to pharmaceutical manufacturers and biotechnology companies of some of the big wigs in the AIDS/ HIV research and academic world. Some of the individuals have truly amazing numbers of consulting jobs, leading the site writers to speculate how they ever have time to see patients or fulfill their academic responsibilities. The site contains pages for people who "control research," "vote on new drugs," "set treatment specs," "educate the field," "write and report," and ironically, "once were activists." The site is sponsored by Project THAMES, which stands for "transparency in HIV authorship, medical education and scientific investigation." Amazing.