NAMI: PACT, Pharma's slush fund, and Mrs. Doonesbury

NAMI gets the money to run its "meds to your door and we'll watch while you take them" program, called PACT,
from Big Pharma.

Read NAMI's PACT pamphlet here

Investigative journalist Jane Pauley and her husband Garry Trudeau, freedom-loving creator of DOONESBURY, should learn about PACT before she accepts an award from NAMI.
Will most people who hear about her breakdown through NAMI ever know that she became ill while taking steroids and antidepressants - because of medication?


Pauley and a crew of Pharma movers and shakers are
big money-makers.

As a celebrity spokesperson (whose speaker's fee is "Category E - $50,000 to $100,000"), Pauley broadcasts the prescription dictum promoted (in unison) by leading psychiat lists and the drug industry.
In a New York Times Magazine Eli Lilly Advertising Supplement, (October 30, 2005), Pauley embraces drug-dependency for life without an iota of skepticism or reservation:

"Although I had only one episode, no one can tell me whether I will have another one, so I must take medication for the rest of my life."
She says she takes both Lithium and an antidepressant.

To understand how Big Pharma buys influence, The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) is a good example.
DBSA bills itself as a grass roots organization that: "throughout 2003 over 4 million people asked DSBA for help."
The DBSA website has multiple "self assessment" tools to assist interested persons in self-diagnosis for a variety of conditions.
The site offers "testimonials" from "real people" who credit medications for their recoveries.
(To see their self-tests online - so bad they are embarassing - go here)

While claiming to be member supported, at a minimum 90% of DBSA'a income comes from the drug industry.
The DBSA 2003 annual report shows who the major donors are:


The “Leadership Circle” consists of donors of $150,000 or more. Listed are: Abbott Labs, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Meyers Squibb,Elan Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen and Pfizer.
The “Founders Club” consists of donors of $10,000 to $149,000. These include: Cyberonics, Forest Labs, Merck, Organon, Wyeth.
The “Advocate Council” consists of donors of $5,000 to $9,999. These include: the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association (SAMSHA).
The “Platinum” donors of $1,000 to $4,999 include TAP Pharmaceutical
See: http://www.dbsalliance.org/PDF/AnnReptFINAL.pdf

Is NAMI Jane's Bag?














Images from http://www.namipharma.org


Is it time to give that Cronkite Award back?

AND...

Video - Money Talks: Profit Before Patient Safety

This 50-minute documentary was created to give an in-depth, academic perspective on the questionable marketing tactics of the pharmaceutical industry, and features the commentary of investigative journalists and medical professionals including Dr. John Abramson, author of Overdosed America, and Prescription Access Litigation Project Director, Alex Sugerman-Brozan. Other notable interviewees include Dr. Bob Goodman of Columbia University, founder of the 'No Free Lunch' program, and Dr. Jerome Hoffman of UCLA Medical School.

But these day may be numbered. Pharma may soon have to disclose its contacts. Read more here.