Breaking news from Bloomberg without commentary even though it’s awesome because one of my best friends is visiting:
U.S. Senator Charles Grassley expanded his investigation into drug company influence on the practice of medicine by asking a nonprofit mental-health- advocacy group about its funding.
In a letter sent today to the National Alliance for Mental Illness, based in Arlington, Virginia, Grassley asked the nonprofit group to disclose any financial backing from drug companies or from foundations created by the industry.
The Iowa Republican, in a series of hearings and investigations, has focused on financial ties between the drug industry, doctors and academic institutions. His efforts have led New York-based Pfizer Inc. to begin disclosing consulting payments to U.S. doctors, and Harvard Medical School in Boston to reexamine its conflict-of-interest policies. Now Grassley is expanding his inquiries to nonprofit groups.
“I have come to understand that money from the pharmaceutical industry shapes the practices of nonprofit organizations which purport to be independent in their viewpoints and actions,” Grassley wrote in his letter.
Officials at the National Alliance for Mental Illness didn’t return calls for comment.
The group identifies itself as the largest grassroots organization in the U.S. for people with mental illness and their families. The group came under scrutiny in 1999, when the magazine Mother Jones reported that 18 drug companies gave the group $11.7 million from 1996 to mid-1999. The article reported that at one point an executive of Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co. worked out of the nonprofit group’s headquarters.
A 2007 annual report showed that the group’s corporate partners at that time included Madison, New Jersey-based Wyeth; London-based GlaxoSmithKline Plc; Eli Lilly, which makes Prozac; and the Washington-based trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. (continue reading)
Darby:
Why should they stop with MHA? Pharma ads are all over the web, including on health sites which promote their use and even, in the case of sites like psychocentral, rate the same drugs that they advertise. Here is a screen shot that was posted on the Wall Street Journal site: http://i42.tinypic.com/o7mw03.jpg
Educational grants are bad enough, but advertising dollars on web sites that dispense advice and have no oversight should be next on Grassley’s list, along with MHA, DBSA, NARSAD, AFSP, CHADD, Bazelon, NCCBH, NYAPRS, and the rest of those fascist louses. CRAZY NO MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Darby, thank you for your leadeership!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gianna,
How funny!
Look closely at the Bloomberg article as you posted it (as did I)…
Bloomberg refers to the ‘National Alliance FOR Mental Illness’ (not National Alliance ON Mental Illness)…
Apparently, the original piece was cleaned-up by Bloomberg…
I’m leaving mine up as is!!!
A true “Freudian slip” is seems….How funny!
Duane
As the Grassley Express rolls on, here is my vote for the next stop:
On-line health sites that are raking it in from pharmaceutical companies, while pushing medication treatments:
http://i42.tinypic.com/o7mw03.jpg
Woo Woo! Chugga Chugga Chugga Chugga…
amen Sandy, amen.
An Open Letter to Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa
Dear Senator Grassley,
Thank you for investigating NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness).
Please investigate Mental Health America, CHADD, TeenScreen, and National Depression Screening Day too. They’re drug industry front groups just like NAMI.
Sincerely,
The entire staff at the Institute for Nearly Genuine Research
http://www.bonkersinstitute.org/mha.html
Gianna,
You’re right – The Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC) is not funded by pharma….or, so they say….
They may be getting money quietly…silently.
Maybe Grassley should find out….
A lot of money getting passed around out there.
For an industry that brings in 100 million a day (a day!!!) on antidepressant alone!, all bets are off with who’s getting some cash on the side….
Maybe the Executive Director, and the CFO with TAC outta get put under oath. With all the crime and corruption out there – I think it behooves us to find out what the CFO of the TAC has to say under oath.
Also, even if the Treatment Advocacy Center is not getting any money directly from pharma….I bet some of their board members are….Some of the prominent doctors and donors are getting some bucks from pharma….
The TAC maintains a non-profit status….That means their books are public record….It means they better not be hiding any money anywhere…and, it means that if there board of directors are on the take…then, the TAC is on the take….
People are getting injured on these drugs….A person with “schizophrenia” mysteriously (yeah, right!) lives 25 years less than an average Joe….because these drugs shut down the body and brain…leading to premature death….
Find out IF the TAC is receiving money….in any shape, form, or fashion…..directly, or indirectly….Turn over every stone….Hell, turn over every damned desk!……This is what Grassley needs to do!!!
Pardon the passion….something about injury and death from FORCED DRUGGING stirs it up inside!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Duane
and yes, Darby the other groups do need going after and I know there are letter writing campaigns and calling campaigns starting up…everyone here can call Grassley as well.
you can get contact info on Grassley here:
http://grassley.senate.gov/contact.cfm
TAC apparently is not funded by Pharma.
TAC is funded by the Stanley Foundation. Stanley, the elder, owns the Easton Books biz so don’t buy any of their books. His son, Jonathan, a non-practicing (I think) attorney is grateful that he was forcibly drugged. (info from a friend of mine)
Darby,
Good point, and let’s not forget the most corrupt (and brutal) of all –
The Treatment Advocacy Center!
Write or email Senator Grassley – tell him to go after all of them, including the TAC!
Ask him to form a Senate Subcommittee – hearings, under oath….Call the top Execs onto the Senate floor – under oath….
Bobby Kennedy did it with the mob!
Big Pharma is a cartel…We can do it all over again! It’ll be fun to watch it all on C-SPAN – really fun!!! And, we can all know that we were behind making sure it got done, as we watch it live on cable or satellite!!!!
RE: The injury and death the drugs have caused: “What did you know?” “When did you know it?” Flashback, to the Nixon era…
And, then we’ll all get to see the cartel put in orange jumpsuits – with shackels placed on their wrists and ankles – tossed into federal tanks – where they belong?
No.
I’m not kidding.
It needs to be done, and we can do it!!!!!!!!
These politicians work for us….
They start receiving hundreds of thousands of calls and emails….same with the U.S. Dept of Justice….They’ll be forced to do it….Their political careers will be at stake….And nothing is more important to a politician than re-election – nothing.
Call/write your Rep in Congress.
Call/write your Senator.
Call/write the President, and the U.S. Dept of Justice…..
Let’s get it done.
Duane
Yes! It’s about time! But I hope Grassley dosesn’t stop with NAMI- there are other mental health non-profits – such as Mental Health America (formerly the Mental Health Association) and many more- that also take big bucks from BIg Pharma and heavily promote the unreflective use of psych drugs. I hope he investigates them all.
Remember, “Friends don’t let friends join NAMI.” –
http://namipharma.org/
Duane
Kim,
NAMI?
You mean the NAMI that lobbies Capitol Hill for more off-label drugging of kids?
The top execs with NAMI need to be fitted for orange jump-suits, and have shackles placed on their ankles and wrists, and stuffed in cell blocks. I think the U.S. Attorneys are gonna have their shot….Prosecutors love to do one thing – Prosecute! And, you gotta love those feds when they get stuff right!
Turn Republican?
I take life an issue at a time….You won’t find me being loyal to either party – Not a lover of big-business, not a love of big-government. Small business, and local government – that’s me. Protection of the minority FROM the majority….which, tends to do lots of damage with lots of money…..
The Constitution usually sorts this stuff out pretty well, if we’d read it from time-to-time, and use it, but groups like the Treatment Advocacy Center just circumvent it, as do the courts – A lot of corruption running around….
I agree with some on the left, and some on the right – depends on the issue, and depends on the legislation. Not a rallier of either party – prefer to look at what the Constitution has to say about each issue, and draw my decision about issues based on that – which, is why some consider me pretty complicated – hard to understand – not easy to put in a box. It allows me to be loyal to the only thing that really matters to me politically – the Constitution. I like it that way!
Make no mistake, NAMI is breaking the law. We have laws on the books about causing injury and death. NAMI needs to held legally accountable.
Make no mistake, the Treatment Advocacy Center is breaking the law. We have the 14th amendment that guarantees due process, and the 8th that protect us from cruel and unusual punishmen. The TAC is breaking the highest law in the land, and needs to be held accountable.
We need to stop shivering in fear of psychiatry, and the groups that continue to do their damage….Stop running from them, and start charging toward them – with the law on our side!
The feds have authority over law breakers – They get to put them in federal prison.
And, if enough of us pressure them, they will.
They need to hear from us.
The government needs to hear from the “people”, and the more of us who write or call, the quicker this job gets done.
Duane
dude, this guy almost makes me turn republican. You have NO IDEA how much I HATE NAMI.
Yes! With this news Grassley is definitely my new hero. We need more like him in politics.