FINALLY, NAMI TIES TO BIG PHARMA ARE TO BE LAID BARE

*It is very pleasing that FINALLY the corrupt schemes of NAMI is becoming to become made known to the public. Hopefully individuals will begin to realize that NAMI is NOT an advocacy organization but rather a front group for pharmaceutical companies.

-Dan L. Edmunds, Ed.D.
www.DrDanEdmunds.com












Bloomberg News - 6 April 2009





Grassley Probes Financing of Advocacy Group for Mental Health


By Nicole Gaouette


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.


Financial Report


A separate financial report shows the National Alliance for Mental
Illness brought in $10.5 million in contributions in the year that
ended June 30, 2007. The donors aren't broken out.


Vera Sharav, president of the Alliance for Human Research Protection,
a New York-based nonprofit that promotes ethical research, said the
National Alliance for Mental Illness may have drawn Grassley's
attention because it lobbies Congress for mental-health funding.


"Academics and physicians give an appearance of authority," Sharav
said by telephone. "Industry gives them the money. Grassley has been
going after each group systematically, and the dots are being
connected."


In January, Grassley and Senator Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat,
reintroduced the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, which would require
manufacturers to report on payments to doctors and any physician-
owned facility.


Pfizer Announcement


Grassley's investigations have led to changes in industry and
academia. Pfizer made its announcement about disclosing physician
payments in February. In March, the American Psychiatric Association
said it would no longer accept industry support for symposiums and
meals at its annual meetings.


On April 1, Stanford University School of Medicine, near Palo Alto,
California, said it would post on a Web site all income faculty
earned from royalty payments and outside consulting.


In the March 31 issue of the Journal of the American Medical
Association, a group of researchers and physicians called for
professional medical associations to transform their operations to
avoid conflicts of interest posed by "extensive funding from
pharmaceutical and device companies." The group included Steven
Nissen, a Cleveland Clinic cardiologist.