The Commission allows access to contracts concluded with pharmaceutical companies
By Stefania Bonfiglio and Beatrice Mantovani
According to the data released by Corporate Europe Observatory, in 2020 alone, the various organizations that promote the interests of Big Pharma spent around 36 million euros in lobbying in Brussels.
In 2020 the European Federation of Industries and Associations pharmaceuticals (Efpia), has increased its budget by 20% to influence EU politics from 4.6 to 5.5 million.
This influential pressure group includes, among others, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
“The 36 million released since Corporate Europe Observatory they only concern the officially declared part, which represents the minority part of the overall lobbying activity.
The media cleverly hijacked the population into a hysterical feud between NoVax and SiVax, and, in doing so, they shifted attention to the vaccine itself (obviously a useful tool for dealing with the spread of viruses), distracting it from the real problem: the speculations around it and the management of the health crisis as a whole “.
In this regard, the Honorable Sofo asks the following question: if the Big Pharma with the onset of the pandemic they have increased the power of lobbying aimed at influencing the choices of institutions, is it conspiracy or common sense to ask whether measures like the Super Green Pass are dictated only by real necessity or also by the interests of pressure groups?
Despite the repeated written questions presented by the Honorable Sofo – as well as by other MEPs – the Commission not only has it never allowed access to contracts stipulated with pharmaceutical companies; but it has also deliberately failed to provide the list of EMA’s lenders, whose budget is 86% privately funded.
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