Harvey Fineberg, president of the Institute of Medicine in Washington, said the 29 member panel will sort out conflicts of interests in the issue. He said, We're not here either to defend or to prosecute the WHO, that's not our job. We're here to find out as best we can, in as truthful way we can what are the lessons that can be learnt. He added, We are actually still in the process of identifying all the possible sources of bias This is a committee that is composed of a lot of individuals who have done a lot of things in public health.

GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Aventis are the two leading pharmaceutical companies who have come up with the H1N1 vaccines. David Salisbury, head of the WHO's vaccine advisory body, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said that a single dose of vaccine would be sufficient to provide immunity for adults, and not two as generally expected. He added that the panel members were vetted and there had been no declaration of conflicts in proceedings on H1N1 vaccine. He also said that pharmaceutical firms were invited to take part in a consultation on vaccine production capacity, "To my knowledge the industry has not done anything other than provide us with scientific information There was at no time any attempt to influence the advice we gave, either in the timing or the content of the advice we gave.