Skerritt needs to be kept out of the TGA.
I’ve been informed by TGA staff that John Skerritt is now giving talks to TGA staff about how to get new drugs funded by working with the drug makers.
Skerritt now works for Medicines Australia which is the representative body for pharmaceutical bodies.
The fact that the TGA would even allow Skerritt back to the TGA given the number of people killed by drugs he approved is shocking. The fact that he is allowed to just goes to show the Department of Health have sold Australians out to Big Pharmaceuticals.
TGA staff should be concerned about safety and efficacy, not how to make money for Big Pharma.
Community Affairs Legislation Committee
26/02/2025
Estimates
HEALTH AND AGED CARE PORTFOLIO
Department of Health and Aged Care
Senator RENNICK: I will leave it at that. I have one more question. I received an email from a whistleblower inside the department that said that on 12 February 2025 former deputy secretary John Skerritt was invited to speak to more than 300 staff about making it easier to get new drugs funded by having the TGA and the funding decision-makers work together. His understanding was that Professor Skerritt’s work in this area has been funded by Moderna and that funding wasn’t disclosed in the meeting. How do the department of health and the TGA deal with potential conflicts of interest and disclosing those conflicts of interest?
Mr Comley : I’m not familiar with the meeting. We have a comprehensive process for declaring the conflicts of interest of our staff and representatives. When any stakeholder makes representations to us, we don’t require them to declare what their particular position or interests are. I’m not familiar with whether Professor Skerritt is on the register of lobbyists. The particular control for people outside the department is that they have to have registration on the register of lobbyists. Apart from that, we engage with stakeholders, we take their information, and we have to form a judgement as to how valid that information is when we feed it into the policy process. But there is a comprehensive approach to our own staff about declarations of conflicts of interest.
Senator RENNICK: Thanks, Chair.
