Paul Herrling, the Swiss head of corporate research at pharmaceutical concern Novartis, was among 21 people…to join a WHO expert group evaluating funding for projects into neglected tropical diseases – those illnesses affecting the poorest populations. He is the only expert in the group who is also an executive in the drugs industry...The Swiss is also the author of a proposal to the same working group for a new funding model that would allocate $10 billion…in grants to fund research by pharmaceutical firms...“It is a conflict of interest for Paul Herrling to evaluate his own proposals,” James Love, of the non-profit advocacy group Knowledge Ecology International [said]…Herrling…[said]: “If the Swiss government and the WHO board think it might be valuable to bring in my experience…I am very willing to do my best to help...”…The WHO said no potential conflicts of interest were big enough to exclude the experts from the panel. But the Council of Europe took a stand on the issue, criticising the WHO’s lack of transparency.