[Ip-health] Concern about Keynote Speaker at Australian Medicines Policy Conference on Nov. 25

[Joana Ramos]

FYI,  a notice from Healthy Skepticism about a new issue of concern.
Please feel free to forward widely, with a copy to us. We need your help
to raise awareness, as this is not just an Australian issue, but a
global health concern. The reach of this particular brand of "consumer
advocacy"  goes beyond North America, Europe  and Australia, with recent
venues we have documented in Asia and Latin America. Please see the
supporting  documents list below for complete details.

To send your own letter or e-mail to David Learmonth, Deputy Secretary
of Australia's Department of Health and Ageing, here is his contact
information:

Mr David Learmonth
Deputy Secretary
Department of Health and Ageing
GPO Box 9848
MDP 84
CANBERRA ACT 2601
AUSTRALIA
david.learmonth@health.gov.au


Joana Ramos
Healthy Skepticism Management Group
campaigns (at) healthyskepticism (dot) org

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http://healthyskepticism.org/other/campaigns/JointPolicyConf.php

13 November 2008

Healthy Skepticism Concern about Keynote Speaker at Australian Medicines
Policy Conference

Healthy Skepticism is concerned about the appropriateness of a keynote
speaker about the role of the consumer in health technology assessment
at a conference later this month. Canadian 'consumer advocate' Durhane
Wong-Rieger PhD is scheduled to address the Medicines Australia and
Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing 2008 Second Joint
Medicines Policy Conference, The Future of Medicines Policy in
Australia, in Canberra on Wednesday 25 November. The brochure for the
conference is online at
http://www.medicinesaustralia.com.au/pages/images/JMPCo8_Program&Registration.pdf.



As discussed in the letter sent to Mr David Learmonth, Deputy Secretary
with the Department of Health and Ageing, Dr Wong-Rieger has extensive
ties to the pharmaceutical industry, detailed in this background report,
and we believe that this is an example of a disturbing trend for
pharmaceutical companies to use so-called consumer advocates and
consumer organisations to lobby covertly on their behalf.


Mr Learmonth's reply dismisses Healthy Skepticism's concerns and claims
that Dr Wong-Rieger's industry connections are well known. We do not
believe that this is the case (except increasingly in Canada, where many
consumer advocates are critical of Dr Wong-Rieger), and it is certainly
not reflected in her speaker profile in the conference brochure. Mr
Learmonth's reply also claims that Dr Wong-Rieger is not speaking as a
designated consumer advocate. However, her speaker profile emphasises
her experience as a consumer advocate/representative and her role as
head of a national network that provides a 'common voice for patient
organisations'.


We believe that this is an example of a disturbing international trend
for pharmaceutical companies to use so-called consumer advocates and
consumer organisations to lobby covertly on their behalf.
In recent years, Wong-Rieger has been involved in industry-sponsored
meetings in Brazil, Pakistan, and Europe. In February 2008 her Consumer
Advocare Network jointly hosted a PhRMA-sponsored conference in Brazil on
access to medicines. Although patient groups were the specific target
audience, members of a Brazilian HIV/AIDS support organisation, from
GTPI/REBRIP, reported that they were banned from attending.
[http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/ip-health/2008-April/012520.html].


Wong-Rieger has also promoted Novartis's oral iron chelator ExjadeT
(deferasirox) at a thalassaemia conference in Pakistan. She is also a
member of the Advisory Board of Patients and Patents, which has been
criticized by
Essential Action for its pharmaceutical industry links and its attempts
to influence the WHO's Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health,
Innovation and Intellectual Property.


Supporting documents:

1) Healthy Skepticism letter to Mr David Learmonth, Deputy Secretary
with the Department of Health and Ageing, Australia
http://healthyskepticism.org/other/campaigns/Letter.php


2) Background report: Durhane Wong-Rieger: Associations with the
pharmaceutical industry
http://healthyskepticism.org/other/campaigns/Background_Wong-Rieger.php

> Dr Durhane Wong-Rieger (PhD) has strong links with many pharmaceutical
> companies via a loose network of industry-funded patient-related
> organisations and several marketing/public relations companies.
> Wong-Rieger is very prominent in the consumer advocacy field in
> Canada, but in recent years she has also been involved in meetings and
> events in Europe and Brazil and Pakistan.....


3) David Learmonth's reply to Healthy Skepticism
Available as PDF file  at link on main campaign page, at
http://healthyskepticism.org/other/campaigns/JointPolicyConf.php






----------------------------
Joana Ramos, MSW
Cancer Resources & Advocacy
Seattle WA USA
+1-206-229-2420
http://ramoslink.info/
www.bmtbasics.org
www.healthyskepticism.org