Senator Grassley Wants Pharma Payment Data From AMA & Others

[Guest guest]

Also in more details athttp://www.iowapolitics.com/index.iml?Article=179090 IowaPolitics.comGrassley works for disclosure of drug company payments to medical groups December 8, 2009===========http://snipurl.com/tm6ds [One Click]Senator Grassley Wants Pharma Payment Data From AMA & Others December 7th, 2009Grassley Wants Payment Data From AMA & OthersBy Ed Silverman As part of an ongoing probe into conflicts of interest, the Senate Finance Committee’s Chuck Grassley has sent letters to the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society and 31 other medical advocacy groups for details about the money they and their board members received from drug and device makers, The New York Times reports.Such funding is often considered proprietary, but critics contend the influence leads them to lobby on behalf of industry, the Times writes. An AMA spokesman tells the paper industry funding comprised less than 2 percent of its budget (see AMA letter) and an American Cancer Society spokesman wrote the Times to say it “holds itself to the highest standards of transparency and public accountability, and we look forward to working with Senator Grassley to provide the information he requested.” Richard LambA recent example involved NAMI, or the National Alliance on Mental Illness, where industry funds accounted for more than half its budget. NAMI recently vowed to accept less industry funding (see here) and Richard Lamb, a board member, resigned (in photo above).Lamb joined the NAMI board in 2005, when he was “shocked to learn that approximately half of NAMI’s income comes from the large pharmaceutical companies,” he wrote in an Oct. 9, 2009, resignation letter that Grassley obtained. NAMI officials assured Lamb this would change, Lamb wrote, “however, very little has changed, right up to the present day.” (to see letter, click here and scroll down). =====In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.