Paul Offit talks about how much he made from the rotavirus vaccine

[carriebft]

CHOP sold its patent for $182 million. This information was made publicly available and was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer at the time. The inventors, Fred Clark, Stan Plotkin, and me split 10 percent of that three ways. This means that we each received about $6 million. It was a ridiculous amount of money and certainly far more than any of us needs, but it is also a far cry from what has been claimed.

Read more: http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/?p=3092#ixzz0R8nSyPPb


You can read the blog for further details. I thought this was interesting since I know it has been claimed to have been anywhere from 26-90 million on different sites that I have read and in various books as well. So someone is way off...

[Jugs]

I'm glad he is being more candid. I don't think the amount he made was truly the issue (he is entitled to profit from his work, just like anyone else), but the way he would conveniently forget to disclose his finacial conflict of interest... except of course for when he coily referred to it being like "winning the lottery."

[carriebft]

Of course, quotes in their place sometimes are shown to mean something different:

The question:

I'm trying to get at the issue of who profits here. Because it seems like there's a popular belief that the people behind the vaccines and behind the medicine are making enormous profits, and while that may be true, it seems like the people who have challenged them have, in some sense, more of a monetary stake in the idea.

The answer:

Well I would argue — first of all, the fact that we were lucky enough to be co-inventors of the vaccines and make a lot of money, it's like winning the lottery. Believe me, no one goes into science thinking "God, if I can figure out which of these two viral surface proteins invoke a neutralized antibody, I can be rich!" From a company standpoint I think that vaccines have never been big money makers. They're not something like lipid lowering agents or psychiatric drugs or diabetes drugs that you're taking every day.

He is saying that you don't really go into it because of the money. It takes extreme luck to actually figure out one that works. He doesn't feel the major motivation is money. To me, his quote is more about the luck involved than the money involved-- but that the money does follow the luck.

But the money thing is interested. I thought the part of the autism omnibus trials where the defense stated "ask yourself, do these people get money to testify or do they testify to make money?" (not exact wording but close)-- he was referring to the 'experts' they put up who had not worked in their fields for years, sometimes decades, how their autism expert had never diagnosed a case of autism, etc-- but who spent their time testifying for big law firms that were going after vaccine makers.

There are a lot of angles to this idea of money....

[xmasbaby7]

I also know other physicians who have worked on vaccines for much of their career, and they are not lottery winners, but they make a comfortable living. I think they are driven by the intellectual stimulation of trying to solve problems.

I never believed the scientists were purely profit driven within the hospital or academic system, but once you get into the patent system involving a pharmaceutical company to develop it, all bets are off.

Surely you understand that R & D divisions and the marketing dept of a pharma company is only trying to create a need for products they feel they can create. All humanitarian bets are OFF, and all denial of proift motives is not only silly, it is illegal not to act in the shareholder's interest of a publicly traded company.

For Offit, I think trying to downplay $6 million compensation is a little silly. For most, this is an immense amount of life-changing money, and one wouldn't want to alienate the hand that feeds him.

[Jugs]

Carrie, I understand the point of his comment and again, I do not begrudge him one dime of what he has profitted. My problem is his venomous attitude toward anyone who deviates from The Schedule; given his track record (combined with being so illusive about his financial stakes), I feel his comment about "winning the lottery" was completely inappropriate, no matter how he intended it. Also, I'm not sure we're even talking about the same interview; the one I saw (can't remember where or with whom, but it was within the past year) he said it with what *I perceived to be* a smirk. It was only in later interviews that he began to clarify his intent.

[carriebft]

Surely you understand that R & D divisions and the marketing dept of a pharma company is only trying to create a need for products they feel they can create. All humanitarian bets are OFF, and all denial of proift motives is not only silly, it is illegal not to act in the shareholder's interest of a publicly traded company.

You might be interested to hear that in Autism's False Prophets, Offit dedicates a section to talking about the negative impacts pharma advertising has on the industry and the health of the american people.

[13Sandals]

Originally Posted by carriebft

He is saying that you don't really go into it because of the money. It takes extreme luck to actually figure out one that works. He doesn't feel the major motivation is money. To me, his quote is more about the luck involved than the money involved-- but that the money does follow the luck.

Its not LUCK to spend enormous time and research dollars on something that is not a problem. With the serious illnesses in the world, how exactly do companies justify the development of vaccines like chicken pox? I agree with xmasbaby "...pharma company is only trying to create a need for products they feel they can create". This is true. They make it because they can and they know they can 'create' a market if there isn't one. Especially with the way school mandates are set up. When the varicella vaccine was ruled by 'supply and demand' and no one wanted it for their kids - pharma companies threatened to stop making it altogether unless it was added to the school schedule. It was added.

But the money thing is interested. I thought the part of the autism omnibus trials where the defense stated "ask yourself, do these people get money to testify or do they testify to make money?" (not exact wording but close)-- he was referring to the 'experts' they put up who had not worked in their fields for years, sometimes decades, how their autism expert had never diagnosed a case of autism, etc-- but who spent their time testifying for big law firms that were going after vaccine makers.

There are a lot of angles to this idea of money....

what are you talking about? nobody goes after 'vaccine' makers. they can't. you can only go after the government through the VICP. and these 'experts' are trying to get what little compensation there is available to the families who have children with vaccine damage. There are caps on what is available through the VCIP - the limit from a vaccine induced death is $250,000. How much do you think families are paying lawyers and 'experts' when they can take home no more than $250,000, even after losing a child?

And the 'vaccine court' isn't awarding damages either - the families putting in all this time and money in these trials are just trying to get the right to sue the pharma companies for peddling things which they know are not safe for everyone. No one gets anything for any ruling in these trials. The only compensation paid out for families so far (like Hannah Poling) were taken out of the Omnibus proceedings and referred to VCIP.

[carriebft]

I should have said "vaccine makers and the government, depending on which countries they were testifying in at the time"

And if you want to know how much these people are making, I highly recommend Autism's false Prophets...he breaks it down quite well. It would be way over the quote limit for me to post it all here, but I will cut it down a bit tonight and post some stuff from the book.

A professional witness isn't going to make all that much from one isolated case like this...but add them all together...

[carriebft]

example before I head out (more later):

On Vera Byers (testified about thimerosal causing disregulation of the immune system):

"Byers hadn't taken care of patients in more than 15 years, but instead had been spending all of her time running a consulting company called Immunology Incorporated, which provided testimony for personal-injury lawyers on toxins in the environment" (167)

[Deborah]

What I find interesting in the whole battle over vaccines, is the concerted attempt to make the parents of chronically ill children into the villains of the piece. I've been observing this process for several years now, and I'm amazed at how often parents are described as, for example, greedy. And unwilling to accept the true facts of what happened to their children: denying reality. Not to mention being called anti-vaccine. Oh, and the accusations that they want children to die of vaccine preventable diseases. Parasites.

I'll admit, that I don't actually think that Offit got into this for the money. I think he is a true believer. That doesn't make him objective, however, either. When you work all your life in a field, you aren't likely to take kindly to people accusing your product of killing and injuring the recipients.

[Jugs]

^I agree; I too believe that he is a true believer in his cause, otherwise he would be content to silently collect his royalties. However, making a "windfall" off of a product while publically berating those who choose not to use it does not help his image.

[Deborah]

Well, I'd be more willing to give them the benefit of the doubt if I hadn't read a book about the development and marketing of Vioxx. I believe it was called Poison Pills.

I can certainly believe that natural supplement and alternative remedy companies are also pursuing profits, sometimes unethically. In spite of government regulation we live in a dangerous environment when it comes to medical products of any sort.

Perhaps it is time to start developing a third approach to the business world. Over the last 15 years or so I've enjoyed membership in several community supported agriculture (CSA) arrangements. Although it is basically a business concept--farmers selling food to consumers--many of the problems inherent in the normal business model are avoided by the openness, clarity and simplicity of the CSA.

[an_domhan]

Originally Posted by carriebft

"Byers hadn't taken care of patients in more than 15 years, but instead had been spending all of her time running a consulting company called Immunology Incorporated, which provided testimony for personal-injury lawyers on toxins in the environment" (167)

Interesting. What does mercury do to cells anyway?

[carriebft]

http://neurodiversity.com/weblog/article/189/

(check out the link for day 4 of the Cedillo trial- you can hear her lie about her qualifications and where she works, claim to be a toxocologist and then also say she doesn't know anything about the chemical structure of thimerosal, and tell a very strange tale about how thimerosal combined with MMR causes autism)

Vas Aposhian and Marcel Kinesbourne also spent most of their time testifying as expert witnesses.

[medusaatemydog]

Originally Posted by an_domhan

Interesting. What does mercury do to cells anyway?

mercury is the second most toxic substance on earth.. hmmmm it's right up there next to plutonium... and our children are an experiment not unlike chernobyl in many ways

it certainly doesn't get excreted by the brain... like aluminum... and much else that would wind up there via injection... these things encountered by natural infection would not likely be found in these parts of the body if it were not for these injections.. viral bacterial etc etc.. adjuvants of all kinds.. autoimmunity brought on by squalene.. etc etc... vaccines are bad for the body.. PERIOD.
the fact that people are struggling to keep the states and governments needles out of thier arms is absurd... i don't care if they make an injection and it was safe.. we should not have to be fighting nazi style medical laws... it makes me wonder about how tragic personality disorders can become in medical proffesionals given so much power that they cannot rationalize ethical practice any longer... otherwise this giant vaccine campaign should not exsist.. this is not about health..money power and control... that is it there is nothing ethical about mandatory vaccines not in the least

[amnesiac]

Some posts which were in violation of our UA and those responding to such posts have been removed and I am re-opening the thread. Since any further issues will result in permanent closure of the thread, please keep our UA in mind when posting and also remember that current event threads such as this "still need to remain on-topic for the forum and should not be about individuals but about the general topic."