| PaulKing 2005-05-29, 10:45 pm |
| Drugs Co. Front Organisations
_ _
http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmar...h/pharmgen.html
Front Organisations
Drug companies are among those health care groups which have created
front
"community" organisations to press and market their point of view.
These groups acquire a large nominal membership, often by subterfuge.
Many
citizens do not know that the group is claiming them as members. They do
not realise what is being done in their names. Staff and most of the
funding for a public campaign are supplied by the corporate backers.
These well funded organisations are able to represent themselves as large
grass roots movements supporting and arguing for the corporate position,
a
position their "members" would not support if they knew all the facts.
Their extensive funding and access to corporate marketing services allows
them to drown out genuine grass roots movements opposing company
policies,
and at the same time lobby politicians strongly on behalf of the public.
These scams can be extremely difficult to detect but Corpwatch has
publicised some of them on its web site at varying times. An increasing
number of politically active US citizens seeking reform now refuse to
belong to organisations, that claim to represent the public, if these
organisations accept any corporate support at all.
This is a particular problem in aged care where corporate chains often
lend support to community groups in order to soften their image. It
effectively ties the hands of the community organisation when its donor
transgresses.
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Flo seems such a nice old lady. She is feisty, good-humoured and worries
about how other elderly Americans are getting on, especially with the
high
price of medicines these days. She is especially concerned that some
new-fangled policy in Congress is going to put "big government in our
medicine cabinet".
That remark, almost hidden among her lighthearted musings, gives away who
she really works for. The series of public policy advertisements she
appears in is paid for by an innocuously named group, Citizens for Better
Medicare, which turns out to be the public relations arm of
Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers of America.
The industry lobby is fighting a tooth and nail battle against a
Democratic proposal to curb the ballooning price of prescription
medicines.
----------------------------
But after the election, it is corporate America that will call in its
chits, and - if recent political history is anything to go by - much of
the new administration's policy will be guided by the bets placed by big
business during the campaign. How big money buys big votes in US race :
Gore's social agenda under assault as billions of dollars dominate
'hidden
election' The Guardian October 10, 2000
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Canada
"Almost all of our money to date has come from pharmaceutical companies
in
Canada," Pat Kelly, one of the founders of the group told Marketplace.
The Coalition is not alone. These days almost every high profile disease
advocacy group relies on the financial backing of the drug industry. That
has some people worried these groups may be influenced by the corporate
interests that pay their bills.
Barbara Mintzes tracks how pharmaceutical companies promote their
products. She says cozying up to advocacy groups is the latest trend.
----------------------------
No one in the public relations industry would agree to do an on-camera
interview for this story. But several did tellMarketplace over the
telephone that they're busy matching drug companies with patient groups.
-------------------------------
Recent national newspaper supplements carrying the Arthritis Society's
logo, extolled the virtues of two new drugs. Nowhere is it mentioned that
the society gets money from the manufacturers of those products.
------------------------------
Another recent event held by a patients group was billed as a public
information session. Two doctors urged the audience to lobby the British
Columbia government to pay for an Alzheimer's drug. The audience never
learned the event, which was sponsored by the Alzheimer's Society, was
paid for by Pfizer - the maker of the drug the doctors said should be
paid
for by the BC government.
The event was organized by a public relations firm.
-----------------------------
Wendy Armstrong of the Consumer's Association of Canada says it's
becoming
impossible to recognize the difference between a legitimate group and "a
drug company front."
-------------------------------
Meanwhile, The Cancer Advocacy Coalition has obtained more funding from a
pharmaceutical company for a national newspaper campaign. The coalition
wants politicians to spell out their commitment to cancer issues and drug
approvals during the federal election. Promoting Drugs Through Patient
Advocacy Groups CBC Documentary November 14, 2000
------------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the biggest players in the soft money game is a group with the
public-spirited title of Citizens for Better Medicare. For an
organisation
which commissioned an estimated $35m in advertising in the last election,
Citizens for Better Medicare, maintains a remarkably small office in
downtown Washington.
-----------------------
Citizens for Better Medicare (CBM) was founded and is funded by PhRMA and
the drug industry. When it registered itself for non-profit status, CBM
declared itself as a PhRMA affiliate. Before taking up his executive
director position, Mr Ryan was PhRMA's marketing director. Special
report:
George Bush's America : Industry that stalks the US corridors of power.
In
the second part of a series - how drug firms reach the heart of
government
The Guardian February 13, 2001
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A PUBLIC CITIZEN RESEARCH REPORT WHICH DESCRIBES THE PROBLEM Of FRONT
ORGANISATIONS (SEE WEB SITE)
"It's time Congress listens to the America public instead of the drug
industry and other powerful special interests,"Kennedy said. "I applaud
Public Citizen's efforts to unmask this latest fraud played on Americaâs
seniors by the drug industry."
-----------------------
Speaking at a press conference held to unveil the report were Sens.
Edward
Kennedy (D-Mass.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)
and
Richard Durbin (D-Ill.); and Reps. Marion Berry (D-Ark.) and Janice
Schakowsky (D-Ill.).New Report Unmasks United Seniors Association as
Hired
Gun for Drug Industry Drug Companies Appear to Have Given Seniors Group
Nearly $10 Million to Push Medicare Drug Bill Favored by Industry Public
Citizen July 16, 2002
------------------------------------------------------------------------
United Seniors Association --- The Seniors Coalition --- The 60 Plus
Association (all claim to be advocacy organisations for US seniors)
If you're like millions of other older Americans, you've seen their names
many times before - either on fundraising appeals or on television spots
promoting political candidates.
-----------------------------
Three nonprofit organizations that claim to speak for older Americans are
in fact heavily bankrolled by the pharmaceutical industry, an examination
of tax records by the AARP #### shows.
-------------------------------
For starters, all three organizations claim to be nonpartisan, though
they
support - almost without exception - the campaigns and causes of one
political party
---------------------------------
Kenneth Goldstein, a political scientist at the university of Wisconsin
who oversees the Wisconsin Advertising Project, says the drug industry
has
also emerged as unquestionably "the top-spending industry" in terms of
political advertising.
--------------------------
But the #### has learned the pharmaceutical industry quietly pulled the
plug on CBM last year, just as PhRMA started channeling what it called
"unrestricted educational grants" to United Seniors Association.
(CBM (Citizens for Better Medicare) - see in reports above - seems to
have
been sprung so is abandoned!) Pulling Strings from Afar : Drug Industry
Finances Nonprofit Groups That Claim to Speak for Older Americans By Bill
Hogan February 2003 <http://www.aarp.org/>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A new campaign group was launched in the UK last year called Raising
Awareness of Paediatric Pneumococcal Infection and Disease (Rappid).
Less well publicised was that Rappid was set up and funded by the drug
company Wyeth, which has developed a vaccine against those diseases. Drug
firms profit from 'murky' link with journals, study shows : Companies are
misleading doctors, patients and governments to push their medicines,
says
a special edition of the 'BMJ' By Maxine Frith
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