Nobel Prize for Sale
Want to win a Nobel Prize? It’s apparently easy if you’re a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical company with an extra $1 million dollars in chump change.
After the Nobel Committee awarded Luc Montagnier the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work in HIV and AIDS this week, Dagens Medicin reports that the Nobel Committee and pharmaceutical giant Astra Zeneca may be investigated for corruption. Stories that question HIV and AIDS science are routinely spiked in the US media.
Journalist Simon Rothelius’ reports:
Astra Zeneca recently became a sponsor for two companies which are part of the Nobel organization. Since thenSveriges Radio (Sweden’s government radio) has revealed that Astra Zeneca can benefit economically from one of this year’s Nobel Prize Medicine winners Harald zur Hausen, who discovered human papillomavirus Virus, HPV. Astra Zeneca receives royalties from sales of both HPV vaccines on the market, Cervarix and Gardasil.
Sveriges Radio has also revealed that Bo Angelin, professor of clinical metabolic research at Karolinska Institute, is on the board of Astra Zeneca and the Nobel Committee which decided the prize winners. This discovery has caused Christer van der Kwast, DA with Riksenheten against corruption, to take action.
“I have given state district attorney Nils-Erik Schultz the mandate to investigate the reports that have been coming from mass media and inform me whether there are grounds for a criminal investigation,” van der Kwast told Sverige’s Radio.
The criminal allegations that may become official involve crimes of bribery and corruption, according to van der Kwast.
Translating from Die Zeit and this Swedish radio station, blogger Udo Schuklenk reports that the Nobel Committee appears to have sold the Montagnier prize for $1 million because of dwindling resources in Nobel’s investments. This may be how the largest commercial sponsor of the foundation’s activities also happens to market products made possible by Montagnier’s alleged discoveries, although he does not reportedly benefit from any AZ sales or partnerships.
For AZ, the $1 million fee is the cost for cheap marketing.
But having the alleged co-discoverer “win” a Nobel Prize is important during a time when the other co-discoverer is facing increasing scrutiny for fraud and scientific misconduct in his own research. Dr. Robert Gallo was snubbed for the award, allegedly for misappropriating Montagnier’s cell samples and misrepresented his findings. The former head of the National Cancer Institute’s electron microscopy found nothing more than cellular debris in what was likely the same material that Montagnier sent to Gallo in 1984.
This week, scientists and physicians have asked the journal Science to de-publish Gallo’s 1984 reports on HIV and AIDS.
This may also explain how Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, and Yassar Arafat got their own prizes.
December 15th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Mr. Baker,
This is a very interesting post indeed, and I applaud you for bringing this to light. As a Californian myself, blogs like yours are important to dispensing information to those who need to hear it.
I’m wondering if you would like to join a coalition of other bloggers who feel much the same way. We’ve created a network here and we’d be honored if you would join us.
If not, that’s OK too. It’s just great knowing that people like you are out there getting the word out and taking a stand.
Thanks for the awesome blog (which I’ve promptly added to my Reader)! Good luck!