AARP Examines Drug Industry Front Groups

AARP, the huge non-profit membership and business organization that bills itself as the senior lobby is now headed by corporate PR veteran Bill Novelli. (Novelli founded one of the world's largest PR firms representing agribusiness, chemical and drug interests, Porter Novelli, leaving it in 1990.) The latest issue of the AARP Bulletin examines some major drug industry front groups: United Seniors Association, the Seniors Coalition and the 60 Plus Association. "Three nonprofit organizations that claim to speak for older Americans are in fact heavily bankrolled by the pharmaceutical industry, an examination of tax records by the AARP Bulletin shows. United Seniors Association, for example, got more than a third of its funds in 2001 from drug-industry sources. The big donors included Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the industry's trade association; Citizens for Better Medicare, a PhRMA-funded nonprofit group; and Pfizer Inc. Total industry contributions: at least $3.1 million."