Upton Allen

Upton Allen is a professor at the University of Toronto. He is chief, Division of Infectious Diseases, Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). Dr. Allen is a senior associate scientist in the Research Institute, Hospital for Sick Children. His primary appointment is with the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Paediatrics. He is cross-appointed as a professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto.

Dr. Allen is a past director of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and a Fellow of the Society. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians (UK). In 2018, he was awarded the Order of Ontario, which is the highest honoured awarded by the province of Ontario, Canada.

Allen sits on the Behavioural Science Working Group of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. He completed two disclosure forms, neither of which report his funding from various pharmaceutical companies.^{1) 2)}

On August 3, 2022, Allen replaced Adalsteinn Brown as co-chair of the OST.³⁾

Allen is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Allen is a member of the American Society of Transplantation Infectious Diseases Community of Practice, with which he’s published a paper titled “Influenza Vaccination in the Organ Transplant Recipient: Review and Summary Recommendations”. In his disclosures in the paper, Allen states he had received various forms of funding from Hoffman la Roche, Pfizer, and ADMA Biologics.⁴⁾ This was not reported on his OST disclosure forms or biography.

Allen is a member of the Black Scientists' Task Force on Vaccine Equity.⁵⁾

Allen is a former Director of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and is a fellow in the society. The society is funded through their foundation by AbbVie, ALK, Allergan, the Alzheimer's Association, American Academy of Insurance Medicine, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Capital for Good (an NGO with ties to the Clinton Foundation, Vanguard, UNESCO, the United Nations (UN), the World Bank and the Peace Corps), Gilead, Janssen, The Medicines Company (since acquired by Novartis), Melinta Therapeutics, Merck, Morgan Stanley, Open Society Foundations (George Soros), Pfizer, Regeneron, Seres Therapeutics, Shionogi, Takeda (member of BIOTECanada and Innovative Medicines Canada), Theravance Biopharma, Vertex, and ViiV Healthcare (a merger of the HIV wings of Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline)^{6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13)}

These ties to pharmaceutical companies were not reported in his OST disclosure forms and biography. Allen has contributed to publications funded by the society including “Charting the Path Forward: Development, Goals and Initiatives of the 2019 Infectious Diseases Society of America Strategic Plan”.¹⁴⁾

Allen sits on the Behavioural Science Working Group of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. He completed two disclosure forms, neither of which report his funding from various pharmaceutical companies.^{15) 16)}

In 2018, Allen was awarded the Order of Ontario.¹⁷⁾

Allen is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in the United Kingdom.

Allen is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Allen is chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and a Senior Associate Scientist in the Research Institute at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids).¹⁸⁾ His profile lists funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Alberta Innovates Health Solutions, Enduring Heart Foundation, AbbVie, the University of Toronto and the SickKids Foundation. His relationship with AbbVie was not reported on his OST disclosure forms or biography. “Using the research infrastructure that he has created, he has been able to rapidly build a team to address host genetic susceptibility to COVID-19. In addition, he is leading studies addressing the immune response profiles due to COVID-19 in different age groups.”

Relevant articles include:

• “Dr. Upton Allen from SickKids leads team assessing COVID-19 prevalence, risk factors among Black Canadian communities” (funded by SickKids and the University of Toronto)¹⁹⁾
• “SickKids researchers studying plasma of COVID-19 survivors” (funded by the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation and SickKids Foundation)²⁰⁾

As a member of the CMV Consensus Group, Upton co-authored a paper titled “The Third International Consensus Guidelines on the Management of Cytomegalovirus in Solid-organ Transplantation”. The paper and the conference in question was funded by Hoffman La Roche, Merck, Oxford Immunotec, Qiagen, Shire, CSL Behring, Lophius Biosciences, Chimerix, Roche Molecular Systems, and Abbott Laboratories.²¹⁾ A similar paper called “Updated International Consensus Guidelines on the Management of Cytomegalovirus in Solid-Organ Transplantation” was published in 2013, funded by Roche.²²⁾ These pharmaceutical ties were not reported on his OST disclosure forms or biography.

Allen is a Professor of Paediatrics and in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto.²³⁾