In the UK there has long been criticism of the policy of the Medical Research Council (MRC) for funding only research which looks for a psychosocial cause for myalgic encephalomyelitis.

The MRC do not fund biomedical research - usually using a reason of a lack of high-quality biomedical research proposals. This proposition by the MRC is ridiculed by many. The MRC refused to fund the work of Dr Jonathan Kerr of St. George's hospital, London, despite the recognition by peers of the world-class research which Dr Kerr was performing.

Given that biomedical research, including gene research (which has shown that in people with ME/CFS, there are more gene abnormalities present than are found in cancer sufferers) has demonstrated that the psychiatrists who hold such sway at the MRC are comprehensively wrong about ME/CFS, nowhere could such criticism be more appropriate than in relation to the PACE Trial.

Professor Malcolm Hooper, Emeritus professor of medicinal chemistry at Sunderland university, has made a formal complaint to the Minister of State responsible for the Medical Research Council.

A 442 page report, under the title Magical Medicine: How to Make a Disease Disappear, has also been produced detailing the failings of the Medical Research Council and specifically the PACE trials.

The report addresses the background to the MRC “PACE” Trial on “CFS/ME”, the biomedical evidence that disproves the assumptions of the MRC trial Principal Investigators, the many extremely disturbing issues surrounding the PACE Trial, and illustrations from the Manuals used in the trial. The document contains the background to consideration of and quotations from the Manuals for the Medical Research Council’s PACE Trial of behavioural interventions for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis together with evidence that such interventions are unlikely to be effective and may even be contra-indicated.