Homeopathy: Medicine for the 21st Century

On 1 August Sense About Science wrote to us criticising the information we have supplied on our BBC Sussex page. They have published their letter here on their website.

 

Their letter can be downloaded here.

 

We have just sent our detailed response, and we wonder whether they will publish this on their website.

 

Our response can be downloaded here.

 

In investigating their complaints we looked more closely at the sources of funding of Sense About Science, and have found that our original figures for the charity's support by the pharmaceutical industry were too conservative.

 

In fact Sense About Science appears to have received an average of more than 42% of its total income between 2004 and 2010 from the pharmaceutical industry or organisations clearly linked to that industry. In 2006, the year Sense About Science published Sense About Homeopathy, there was a huge leap in such funding, from £37,300 (36.9% of total income) to £102,165 (51.2% of total income). Full details are included in Appendix 1 of our response.

 

We were particularly surprised that Sense About Science had raised the issue of our comments on its funding and its publication Sense About Homeopathy, since in April 2011 Sense About Science had a link on its website to our publication Nonsense, Not Science, and this publication detailed our reasons for the statements we have made. We note that Sense About Science no longer has a link to this criticism of its publication.