Hello 

Pfizer, the pharmaceutical manufacturer, have been in the news recently. 

It would appear that in 2015 they uncovered a possible link between Enbrel, their drug

designed to combat rheumatoid arthritis and a potential reduction in the risk of developing Alzheimer’s by up to 64%.

However…they did not publish their findings. 

Pfizer have apparently said that they didn’t publish anything because they didn’t want to lead other researchers down a dead end, and that their drug didn’t interact with brain tissue anyway.

Now I’m sure that that had nothing to do with a patent running out or the cost of trialling whether 

what their stats suggested was actually true!

I’m also sure that some their immunologists and and inflammation experts would have felt differently. 

Alzheimer’s sufferers have been shown to have no substantial traces of the notorious plaques 

and tangles, and people with no apparent symptoms have been found to have substantial quantities.

So other things must be at play. Any immunologist would know that a few decades ago, we became aware that the blood brain barrier is not in fact impenetrable, and they would also know that inflammation in the body is in some instances implicated in causing inflammation in the brain. 

Inflammation is one of the prime suspects for delirium, which at first glance can mimic Alzheimer’s, and indeed inflammation may also have a role to play in depression as well as Alzheimer’s.

Pfizer manufacture Sertraline, an SSRI, they’ll know all about the tryptophan steal, and why perhaps SSRI’s are in some circumstances ineffective.

They will not be short of neuroscientists, immunologists, or experts in the process of inflammation.

And so I suspect that their explanation for not releasing their findings is the opinion of some, but not all, and that they have thus demonstrated decision making which is at best stupid and at worst callous, short-term, self-centred and also stupid.

How many other avenues might this information have opened up sooner, or in fact allowed other researchers to stop going down their existing blind alleys? In the UK alone the cost of dementia care, a substantial amount of which is for Alzheimer’s care, runs to tens of billions of pounds.

The informal, social, and NHS care costs are mind-boggling, and will continue to rise. There is also of course the human cost, in terms of suffering to the individual, their families, and their carers.

Pfizer may donate to charities, subsidise and raise awareness of worthwhile causes (and of course raise awareness of themselves and their wonderful deeds) but they still failed the test. 

They did not do the right thing.

Even if their findings amounted to nothing once investigated by others, that in of itself is valuable information. 

Corporate Social Responsibility is a bit like integrity, in fact it is integrity, it is corporate integrity, it is doing the right thing when no one is looking.

Pfizer spectacularly failed the test and should be ashamed of themselves. 

No doubt at least some in the organisation will be.

Best wishes 

Mike