Cochrane Collaboration

"Science"  Cochrane Collaboration
Formation	1993
Founder	Iain Chalmers
Headquarters	London, England
Interests	Big Pharma
Sponsored by	Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Open Philanthropy
Membership	•  Tracey Howe •  Catherine Marshall
A medical group formerly dedicated to countering Big Pharma corruption of evidence, but now receives $$$ from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Cochrane is a global, independent network (a charity under British law) of scientists, physicians, health professionals, patients and other people interested in health issues. Founded in Oxford by Iain Chalmers in 1993 as the Cochrane Collaboration, it provided critical reviews of Big Pharma products for its first two decades.

The name was shortened in 2015 by CEO Mark Wilson as part of a new brand identity In 2016, Cochrane was "delighted" to announce a grant of USD $1.15 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the development of Cochrane's next generation evidence system. In 2018, it expelled the legendary Big Pharma critic Peter Gøtzsche after "numerous complaints".

Official narrative

It is named after the British doctor and epidemiologist Archie Cochrane. The organization is based in London. More than 100,000 members and supporters from over 200 countries worldwide contribute to the work of Cochrane (as of 2021).

Cochrane is committed to ensuring that health decisions worldwide are based on high-quality, relevant and timely scientific evidence, and promotes evidence-based health decision-making through the production and dissemination of high-quality systematic reviews and meta-analyses, as well as other formats of processed evidence.

Compromised by Big Pharma

During its 2018 annual meeting, the Cochrane board expelled Peter Gøtzsche, board member and director of Cochrane's Nordic center and pioneer in fighting Big Pharma influence, from the organization, telling Nature that it had received "numerous complaints" about Gøtzsche after he co-authored an article in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine alleging bias in Cochrane's May 2018 review of HPV vaccines.

According to the British Medical Journal, this expulsion was only possible thanks to a bureaucratic maneuver: Gøtzsche was removed from the conference room before the vote, which allowed a minority, 6 people out of the 13 normally included in the Board of Directors, to vote for the expulsion of Peter Gøtzsche (6 for, 5 against, 1 abstention).

Gøtzsche's expulsion led four elected board members to resign in protest, which in turn led the board to cut two appointed members in order to comply with the ratio of elected to appointed members required by the organization's charter. Gøtzsche announced that this had happened via an open letter, in which he said there is a "growing top-down authoritarian culture and an increasingly commercial business model" taking root at Cochrane that "threaten the scientific, moral and social objectives of the organization". Gøtzsche remains an outspoken critic of Cochrane's relationship with the pharmaceutical industry. The Cochrane board stated that Gøtzsche was expelled for his behavior, which had been reviewed by an independent counsel hired by Cochrane.

Funding

Cochrane is funded through revenue from the Cochrane Library and other Cochrane products, as well as support from national governments, international governmental and non-governmental organizations, universities, clinics, private grants, and personal donations. "To ensure scientific independence", Cochrane has strict principles and rules on commercial (financial) sponsorship and management of conflicts of interest.

Cochrane has various sponsors and partners. The sponsors include institutions close to Big Pharma, such as the British National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the German Federal Ministry for Health (BMG), the Danish government (Rigshospitalet research community) and the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC).

Partners

World Health Organization

Cochrane maintains an official relationship with the World Health Organization that affords Cochrane the right to appoint nonvoting representatives to WHO meetings, including sessions of the World Health Assembly, and make statements on WHO resolutions.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia and Cochrane collaborate to increase the incorporation of Cochrane research into Wikipedia articles and provide Wikipedia editors with resources for interpreting medical data.

 

Sponsors

Event	Description
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation	Very influential and rich foundation established to take leadership of global health.
Open Philanthropy	Grant maker funneling deep state money among other things to pandemic planning. Financed Event 201.

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.