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Center for Medicine in the Public Interest

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This article is part of the Center for Media & Democracy's spotlight on front groups and corporate spin.

This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation. Help expose the truth about the tobacco industry.

This article is part of the Center for Media & Democracy's spotlight on front groups and corporate spin.

The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (CMPI) is a pharmaceutical industry front group that describes itself on its Website as existing "to discuss, debate, and demonstrate how exponential and accelerating technological progress coupled with smart public policy will enhance and advance 21st century health care by predicting, preventing, diagnosing, treating and disease with greater speed, more precision, and less cost."[1]

On its original Website, CMPI described itself as "a clearinghouse for up-to-the-minute facts on the development, accessibility, and safety of pharmaceuticals."[2]

Contents

Orchestrating attacks on health reform

The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest has been identified as a corporate front group engaged in orchestrating a public misinformation campaign about health reform. According to Think Progress, CMPI "was originally a project of the Pacific Research Institute, an older corporate front established in conjunction with Philip Morris to fabricate academic support for the tobacco industry."[3]

In 2009, CMPI engaged activities to thwart health care reform in the U.S., some of which are as follows:

  • CMPI produced a series of interviews with "U.S. Policymakers" about health reform which starred exclusively Republican lawmakers, including — Rep. Louie Gohmert (Texas), Rep. Bob Inglis (South Carolina), Rep. Jack Kingston (South Carolina), Rep. Tom Price (Georgia), Rep. Joe Wilson (South Carolina -- famous for shouting "You lie!" at President Obama during his speech to joint houses of Congress on health reform), Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minnesota), rep. Paul Ryan (Wisconsin), and Senators Jim DeMint (South Carolina), Jim Bunning (Kentucky) and David Vitter (Louisiana), all attacking health reform. CMPI also produced a series of videos that mocked health reform and a public insurance option.
  • CMPI produced video games distorting health reform as focal pieces to help recruit people to sign up for CMPI’s daily anti-reform talking points.
  • CMPI initiated a website called "Hands off my Health" that featured the supposed horrors of universal health care programs in countries like Canada and the United Kingdom. CMPI officials conducted a media campaign about a woman named Shona Robertson-Holmes, an Ottowa citizen in which they claimed she had a brain tumor the Canadian system refused to treat. However, Robertson-Holmes reported that CMPI exaggerating her case, and that she actually had a benign cyst.
  • CMPI subcontracted with the Republican consulting firm Political Media to develop a blitz of online ads attacking health reform. In the weeks before the House vote on reform legislation, CMPI ran ads on sites like the Politico, Drudge Report, WashingtonPost.com, WashingtonTimes.com with an animated sheep stating that the public option is a “baaaaaad idea.” CMPI plans to run more anti-reform ads as the Senate begins debate.[4]

CMPI's head is Peter Pitts, the director of global health care for the PR firm Porter Novelli. [5]

The Bioethics Forum, a site that comments on bioethical issues, reported that CMPI, which receives drug company money, aggressively defends almost any practice of the pharmaceutical industry. [6][7]

Relationship with the Pacific Research Institute

On its original website CMPI complained that "prescription drugs are probably the most highly regulated, government-controlled products that American consumers purchase. Many competing interests try to influence our ability to make informed choices about the medicines we use, and some argue for even more government intervention. Americans should be concerned about the effects such policies have on their health."[8]

"To that end,", it continued, "the Pacific Research Institute has established the Center for Medicines in the Public Interest (CMPI)."[8]

A biographical note on CMPI's website in February 2008 stated that Peter Pitts founded CMPI after being a "Senior Fellow for healthcare studies at the Pacific Research Institute, a San Francisco based think tank." (Emphasis added)[9] However, another biographical note on the website of political consultancy company, Political Capital describes Pitts as "Director of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest at the Pacific Research Institute." (Emphasis added).[10] The page on the website featured the logos of both the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) and CMPI.

An early 2006 version of the CMPI website stated that "with a tax-deductible contribution to PRI" individuals or companies could support CMPI. The privacy policy at the foot of the page stated that "The Center for Medicines in the Public Interest and the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy do not share, sell, rent or exchange donor, visitor, or member information with anyone" and the copyright tag for the CMPI website stated that it belonged to the Pacific Research Institute.[11]

The "CMPI Linking Agreement and Link Conditions" on the groups website in February 2008 stated that "Upon approval, links may be established to the CMPI home page at www.pacificresearch.org".[12] It should be noted that the policy referred to the groups old domain address "rxcmpi.org", so the policy appears to have been copied across without change when the domain was changed to the current "cmpi.org" address.

Funding

The group's website solicit "tax-deductible contribution to CMPI". However, Guidestar does not list CMPI in its database of non-profit groups.

Aside from individual "collegiate" and "individual" sponsorhsips - $75 and $500 respectively - CMPI touts for corporate sponsorships. A "corporate" sponsorship, costing $10,000, entitles contributors to "direct access to CMPI research scholars for timely policy analysis". The additional benefit of a "Chairman's Circle" sponsorship, costing $25,000, is an "invitation to Annual Benefactors' Summit". For "President's Club" sponsors, who contribute $50,000 and over, are also entitled to an "annual personal briefing/presentation to you and/or your company from CMPI research directors." However, CMPI does not disclose any details of which companies fund it. Nor does it have an annual report on its website.[13]

On an earlier version of its website, CMPI stated that "PRI solicits and accepts donations from corporations in the health care industry. In order to avoid conflicts of interest, PRI staff and external authors adhere to a Code of Practice."[8] What was the code of practice stated, was not disclosed.

As to the tobacco industry, Pitt wrote at the foot of a post on the groups DrugWonks blog "FYI -- the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (the sponsor of drugwonks.com) does not accept funding from the tobacco industry."[14] However, another post from Pitts from a few days earlier on the topic of direct-to-consumer advertising of drugs contained no disclosure of pharma funding.[15]However, when Pitts was being introduced before being interviewed for PBS's NewsHour a month earlier, Jim Lehrer explained that CMPI "a group that receives funding from the pharmaceutical industry".[16] Which companies fund the group was not disclosed.

Ties to Avandia controversy

Following Dr. Steven Nissen's publication of a study warning that "GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes drug Avandia increased the risk of heart attacks by 43% and death from cardiovascular events by possibly 64%," he was publicly pilloried. "More than one story from ostensibly different sources" derisively referred to him as "St Steven," the "Patron Saint of Drug Safety," and "Saint Steven the Pure," reported Evelyn Pringle in an August 2007 CounterPunch article.[17]

Among the Nissen attackers was FDA spokesman Douglas Arbesfeld. Arbesfeld previously worked at the PR firm Manning Selvage & Lee (MS&L), helping Glaxo and other "healthcare clients maximize internet-relations." Former FDA Deputy Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who ridiculed Nissen in a Wall Street Journal editorial, also consulted for pharmaceutical companies at MS&L. Two more FDA alums, Peter Pitts and Robert Goldberg, mocked Nissen in a Washington Times piece. Pitts is the senior vice-president for global health affairs at MS&L. Goldberg doesn't have ties to the PR firm, but serves with Pitts as an officer of CMPI, which Pringle describes as a "nest of ex-moles who served the industry in one capacity or another in the Bush Administration's FDA."[17]

Personnel

Founders

  • Peter Pitts is the Director of CMPI. Pitts is a "former Associate Commissioner for External Relations at the Food and Drug Administration under Commissioners Mark McClellan and Les Crawford. [1]
  • Robert Goldberg, Vice-President and Director of Programs, Center for Medicine in the Public Interest

Board of Directors

CMPI Senior Fellows

  • Marc Siegel, MD, Senior Fellow, Center for Medicine in the Public Interest
  • Doug Badger, Senior Fellow, Center for Medicine in the Public Interest
  • John F. P. Bridges, Senior Fellow, Center for Medicine in the Public Interest
  • Jacob Arfwedson, Senior Fellow, Center for Medicine in the Public Interest

CMPI Advisory Board (now defunct)

Contact details

308 East 38th Street
Suite 201
New York, New York 10016
Phone: (646) 414-0006
Fax: (212) 588-8924
Email: info At cmpi.org
Web: http://www.cmpi.org

Articles and Resources

Sources

  1. ↑ "Mission Statement", accessed February 2008.
  2. ↑ "Center for Medicine in the Public Interest", January 7, 2006.(this is archived in the Internet Archive)
  3. ↑ Lee Fang Exclusive: Attacks On Health Reform Orchestrated By Yet Another Shadowy Corporate Front Group — ‘CMPI’ , Corporate Malfeasance, November 18, 2009
  4. ↑ Lee Fang Exclusive: Attacks On Health Reform Orchestrated By Yet Another Shadowy Corporate Front Group — ‘CMPI’ , Corporate Malfeasance, November 18, 2009
  5. ↑ Lee Fang Exclusive: Attacks On Health Reform Orchestrated By Yet Another Shadowy Corporate Front Group — ‘CMPI’ , Corporate Malfeasance, November 18, 2009
  6. ↑ Norman Kelley and Adriane Fugh-Berman, Bioethics Forum Deceptive Market Practices in the Marketplace of Ideas Pharmaceutics. July 2 2008
  7. ↑ Lee Fang Exclusive: Attacks On Health Reform Orchestrated By Yet Another Shadowy Corporate Front Group — ‘CMPI’ , Corporate Malfeasance, November 18, 2009
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "About Center for Medicines in the Public Interest", January 3, 2006.(This is a copy of the page archived in the Internet Archive).
  9. ↑ "About CMPI", accessed February 2008.
  10. ↑ Political Capital, "Speaker Biographies", accessed February 2008.
  11. ↑ Untitled, January 13, 2006. (This is archived in the Internet Archives and was accessed in February 2008).
  12. ↑ Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, "CMPI Linking Agreement and Link Conditions", accessed February 2008.
  13. ↑ Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, "Contribute to CMPI", accessed February 2009.
  14. ↑ Peter Pitts, Smoking Aces", DrugWonks, March 10, 2008.
  15. ↑ Peter Pitts, "Getting into DDMAC's PJs", DrugWonks, March 7, 2008.
  16. ↑ Jim Lehrer, "Lipitor TV Spots Raise Debate Over Advertising Practices", Online NewsHour, PBS, February 7, 2008.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Evelyn Pringle, "Protection Racket?: The FDA and Avandia", Counterpunch, August 15, 2007.

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