I don't doubt the 17 members that were fired from this panel were highly qualified. I don't doubt that at all. To me, though, regardless of the level of qualification... if ANY of them were being paid so much as 1 whole penny from ANY pharma company... they are compromised and dismissing them seems perfectly reasonable.
If this was 17 members of this panel that were highly qualified scientists with ZERO financial motivation... only then is the whole thing fucked up to me. Perhaps I'm missing something.