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Talking of indoctrination. http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/dissent/documents/health/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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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