[Ip-health] Campaign for Fighting Diseases and the International Policy Network

[Martin Smith]

The Times (UK) has published an article talking about the
International Policy Network and its Big Pharma-funded Campaign for
Fighting Diseases:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3284-1943613,00.html

You want policy? In cash?
By Paul Staines
LAST WEEK Doug Bandow, a senior Fellow at the Cato Institute,
Washington's think-tank powerhouse, resigned after he admitted
accepting money from a lobbyist for writing newspaper articles
favourable to the lobbyist's clients. At $2,000 a go, it pays pretty
well.

So how can I get into this game? Maybe I should develop a passionate
interest in global warming. The London-based International Policy
Network said it's "a myth". Ker-ching! It received $250,000 from Exxon
for "climate change outreach". IPN wonks are multi-taskers; they are
software experts as well. Free open-source software is, they say, bad
for economic growth. Ker-ching! Microsoft electronically transfers its
support. Mr Bandow himself was at IPN's launch of its Big
Pharma-funded Campaign for Fighting Diseases. Coincidentally, pamphlet
after pamphlet from IPN recommends policies that would further boost
the gargantuan profits of Pfizer, the world's biggest pharmaceutical
corporation. Is this ethically suspect cash for policies? Nobody is
getting fired at IPN.

Prostituting yourself for corporate profiteers is not just restricted
to climate change deniers. The Blairite Demos think-tank will provide
policy recommendations for cash. When Cable & Wireless wanted its
bitter rival BT broken up, Demos obliged with a pamphlet recommending
that the Government do it. Ker-ching! The Stockholm Network, which
presents itself as a pan-European think-tankkk co-ordinating body,
turns out to be in fact the public face of Market House International,
a PR consultancy that tells corporate clients that the network gives
it "local capacity to deliver both local messages and locally tailored
global messages in a wide range of countries".

John Blundell, the director-general of the respected Institute of
Economic Affairs, despises these "wonk whores". He says: "Global
companies are buying up think-tanks left, right and centre. Large
cheques come attached to particular policy recommendations and senior
corporate types sit on committees ready to 'candle-snuff' dangerous
ideas."

If wonks are simply going to write press releases for Big Oil or Big
Software, they should at least put a disclaimer on the cover. The next
time you read of some wonk's recommendation, remember the advice about
corruption from the Watergate Deep Throat: "Follow the money."