The Pharmaceutical Industry’s Front Men
By the Children's Health Defense Team
Although the details are not always fully or accurately documented, the funding trail can often provide insight into the pharmaceutical industry’s complex and mutually-dependent relationship with physician trade groups and physicians.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), one of the most notorious vaccine industry front groups, receives funding from all four manufacturers of childhood vaccines in the U.S. and gets substantial funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over a third of which is explicitly vaccine-related. The Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) and Every Child by Two (ECBT) also receive significant funding from vaccine manufacturers and the CDC.
The pharmaceutical industry also has considerable expertise in turning physicians into “a cog in their marketing machine.” Encouraged by the AAP and other trade groups, physicians have by and large been willing participants in the U.S. vaccine program and also benefit from various financial incentive programs such as insurers who give bonus payments to practice groups who achieve specified vaccination targets.
With industry and CDC funding in hand, these front groups can guarantee vaccine makers’ ability to influence policy without having to stand on the front lines.
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