Center for Medicine in the Public Interest

The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (CMPI) claims to be a ‘nonprofit, non-partisan organization promoting innovative solutions that advance medical progress, reduce health disparities, extend life and make health care more affordable, preventive and patient-centered.’ It offers ‘the public, policymakers and the media a reliable source of independent scientific analysis on issues ranging from personalized medicine, food and drug safety, health care reform and comparative effectiveness. The director of the Stockholm Network (SN), Helen Disney, used to sit on its now defunct advisory board along with representatives from two think tanks who are part of the SN: International Policy Network (Julian Morris) and Centre for the New Europe (Stephen Pollard). The director of communications at Pfizer Catherine Barr Windels is also on the CPMI board.

The CPMI has been accused of being an 'astroturf' organisation that receives its funding from pharmarceutical companies. According to the Washington Post:

The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (CMPI) is a New York-based think tank headed by Peter Pitts, a former Food and Drug Administration official who appears frequently on newscasts condemning Democratic health-care proposals. CMPI is an offshoot of the San Francisco-based Pacific Research Institute, which has received foundation grants over the years from Philip Morris, Pfizer and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, according to public records.

While serving as president of CMPI, Pitts also works as the global health-care chief at Porter Novelli, a New York public relations firm whose clients include Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, Wyeth and Pfizer. He acknowledges that CMPI also receives money from the pharmaceutical industry, which is supporting reform legislation in exchange for a White House promise to limit cuts.

The CPMI was an offshoot of the Pacific Research Institute which Rachel Maddow describes as 'a famous pro-tobacco ostensibly grassroots corporate front group that was funded by Philip Morris'.

Funding and disambiguation

The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest is not to be confused with the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The two are completely unrelated, despite their very similar sounding names.

They also have completely different funding policies. CSPI says it does not accept funding from corporations or government; instead it is funded by individual donors, foundation grants, and subscriptions to its newsletter.

CMPI, on the other hand, stated on a 2005 version of its website that it accepted corporate funding:

Its contributors consist primarily of foundations and individuals, with some corporate support, as described in its 2004 annual report.

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.

CMPI has also been funded in part by the pharmaceutical industry. According to Politico.com, CMPI`s biggest contributors in 2006 were the drug maker Pfizer and PhRMA, the drug industry`s trade group.

US Health care reform debate

CMPI was 'a big player' in the U.S. anti-health reform movement in late 2009. They sponsored anti-Obama tea party protests and organized a 'U.S. Policymakers' series that hosted anti-health reform interviews with a 'not-so-broad range of Republican lawmakers, including Michele Bachmann, Joe Wilson, Jim DeMint, David Vitter'. They also produced 'a number of anti-health reform online ads and video and even anti-health reform video games'.

Porter Novelli the PR firm who employ Peter Pitts who heads CMPI, 'helped that industry kill the Patients Bill of Rights way back in 1994', arguing that it was part of a 'big government agenda', the same arguments used to dicredit the US Healthcare reforms in 2009.

People

Board of Directors

• Gad Berdugo, General Partner, Explorium Capital LLC
• Fred Goodwin, M.D. Professor of Psychiatry, The George Washington University Medical Center.
• Steven Sammut, Lecturer, Wharton School, the Law School and the School of Engineering and Applied Science of the University of Pennsylvania
• Mark Thornton, M.D., Ph.D. Chairman and President, Sarcoma Foundation of America
• Michael Weber, M.D. Professor of Medicine SUNY Downstate College of Medicine, Brooklyn, New York
• Catherine Barr Windels, Principle, OnPoint Strategies, LLC

Founders

• Peter J. Pitts – President of CMPI and Partner/Director of Global Healthcare at Porter Novelli
• Robert Goldberg - Vice President and Director of Programs at CMPI

CMPI Advisory Board (no longer in existence)

• Joesph L. Bast President and CEO, The Heartland Institute, Chicago, IL
• John E. Calfee Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C.
• Joseph A. DiMasi, Ph.D. Director of Economic Analysis, Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, Tufts University, Boston, MA
• Helen Disney Director, Stockholm Network, London, England
• John Kamp Executive Director, Coalition for Healthcare Communication
• Sam Kazman General Counsel, Competitive Enterprise Institute
• Dr. Merrill Mathews, Jr. Resident Scholar, Institute for Policy Innovation Director, Council for Affordable Health Insurance
• David McIntosh Attorney, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP, Washington, D.C.
• Julian Morris Director, International Policy Network, London
• Tomas J. Philipson Professor, The Harris School, Chicago, IL
• Stephen Pollard Senior Fellow at the Centre for the New Europe, Brussels, Belgium
• William Roper CEO, University of North Carolina Health Care System
• Ellen V. Sigal, Ph.D. Founder and Chairperson, Friends of Cancer Research
• Samuel C. Silverstein, M.D. John C. Dalton Professor and Chairman, Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Columbia University Professor of Medicine, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University
• Philip Stieg, M.D. Professor and Chairman, Department of Neurological Surgery, Weill Medical College Neurosurgeon-in-Chief, New York-Presbyterian Hospital
• Daniel E. Troy Former Chief Counsel of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Partner in the Washington, New York Offices of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood
• Grace Marie Turner President, The Galen Institute
• Ben Zycher Senior Fellow in Economics, Pacific Research Institute Adjunct scholar, Cato Institute, Claremont Institute

Publications and Affiliations

• On 20 September 2005, the CMPI released a report called 21ST CENTURY HEALTH CARE TERRORISM: THE PERILS OF INTERNATIONAL DRUG COUNTERFEITING with the Pacific Institute. It was authored by Peter Pitts, founder of CMPI, along with Michael Tew and Alexandra Preate from Capital HQ.

Contact

Headquarters:

Address:

308 East 38th Street

Suite 201

New York, New York 10016

Phone:(212) 417-9169

Fax: (212) 417-9170

email: info@cmpi.org

Paris Office

3 rue Primatice

75013 Paris

Phone: + 33 1 43 31 89 25