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Michael Horwin letter to Wayne L. Pines Re: Congressional Hearings on
Vaccines and Autism
April 29, 2000
In Reply to Editorial Comment from:
Wayne L. Pines (service@webmd.net or wayne@therametrix.com)
Re: Congressional Hearings on Vaccines and Autism
Wayne L. Pines, you belittle Congressman Burton as an "angry grandfather" when
his goal is to make vaccines safer for children. Your feeble attempt to undermine
Congressman Burton's efforts made sense only after your ties to the vaccine manufacturers
and drug companies were revealed. This is a day in your life Wayne L. Pines. Let's see who
you really are and then people will understand that your words are meaningless because
they are motivated by avarice.
You started your career in Washington as the associate editor for The Pink Sheet a
pharmaceutical trade magazine. Then you went to work at the FDA for 10 years from 1972 to
1982. Your next job was with the PR firm Burson-Marsteller. After that, you got a job with
APCO Associates. Then you joined a company called Therametrix (1). In between you became
involved with various pharmaceutical trade groups such as the Food and Drug Law Institute
(2), the Drug Information Association (3), and the Internet Healthcare Coalition (4).
Now let's start connecting the dots to see why you would not want a public discussion
about how to improve the safety of our children's vaccines. We'll pick-up your career
after you leave the FDA. You immediately landed a job with the PR firm Burson-Marsteller
(a subsidiary of the advertising agency Young & Rubicam). Your title there was
executive vice president.Marsteller clients includeMonsanto and their bio-engineered foods
and Dow-Corning and their silicon breast implants. In addition, Marsteller has several
large drug companies as clients including Eli Lilly. Lilly produces the drug Prozac which
has accumulated more adverse reaction reports than any substance (besides vaccines) in the
history of the FDA's adverse drug reporting system. Documents released under the Freedom
of Information Act challenged the veracity of Prozac's clinical trials that led to FDA
approval. Lilly's PR firm Burson-Marsteller was called in to do damage control. There,
according to the Campaign Against Fraudulent Medical Research, it was reported that you
helped Lilly get past its troubles by exploiting your contacts with current FDA officials
(5).
You then became president of the Health Care Practice of APCO Associates a
"communications consulting firm." According to PR Watch, APCO Associates
specializes in setting up front groups and coalitions for the tobacco and insurance
companies (6). In fact, APCO's website boasts that"excellence in public affairs and
public relations, like excellence in art, is about the power of communication" (7).
No it's not. Excellence in public affairs is about honest communication and adding
substance to the public discourse. It's what Congressman Burton is doing. It's not about
ridiculous, crude and poorly veiled attempts to protect and further your client base. You
may think excellence in public affairs and public relations is about power, but power
won't help you when it comes to our children. As much as it may disturb your plans,
parents will not sacrifice the health and lives of their children in order to drive up the
stock prices of your drug company clients.
Next you joined Therametrix whose website gloats that "Wayne L. Pines is a
world-renowned health care consultant (who) has consulted for virtually all of the major
pharmaceutical companies..."(1). It also states that Therametrix is a "medical
marketing research agency that serves the pharmaceutical,biotechnology, medical device and
consumer health products industries" (8). Your clients are listed as including: Abbot
Laboratories, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Du Pont Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly,Glaxo
Wellcome, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Pharacia & Upjohn, Procter & Gamble
Pharmaceuticals,Roche Laboratories, Schering-Plough, Triangle Pharmaceuticals and Warner
Lambert - all of them drug and vaccine manufacturers (9). Your company's mission statement
declares, "We see nothing more important than meeting our client's needs" (9). I
don't doubt it.
You are also on the marketing and advertising committee of the Drug Information
Association which describes itself as a "member-driven scientific association with a
membership of over 22,000 primarily from the regulatory agencies, academia, contract
service organizations, pharmaceutical,biological and device industry, and from other
health care organizations" (10). Who are some of the other committee members in the
Drug Information Association? They include Dr. R.Venkataraghaven of Lederle Laboratories
(3)manufacturer of Orimune, Tetramune and other vaccines, Dr. Elizabeth B. D'Angelo of
AstraZeneca (3), and Dr. John F. Bedard of Bristol-Myers Squibb (3). The board of
directors include Stuart W. Cummings of Merck, Sharp & Dohme manufacturer of the
vaccines associated with autism - MMR, MR Vax, Meruvax II, Mumpsvax,Varivax and others,
Francoise de Cremiers of Wyeth-Ayerst another major vaccine manufacturer,Charles C. Depew
of SmithKline Beecham, Brenton James of Glaxo Wellcome, Murray Lumpkin of the FDA, and
Irwin G. Martin of Parke-Davis (11).
In addition, you are a member of the Food and Drug Law Institute which describes itself
"as a private organization, not affiliated with the FDA.(but our) mission, however,
does relate to the activities, policies and procedures of the FDA..."(12). As a
participant in this institute you work with the other members, and in fact, you are
scheduled to moderate one of the institute's conferences on medical technology, drugs and
biologics (i.e. vaccines) in June of this year (2). Nearly every drug company including
the major vaccine manufacturers is a member of this organization. The list includes:
American Home Products (i.e.Lederle), Bayer, Medeva Pharmaceuticals, Merck & Co.,
Organon Teknika, and SmithKline Beecham.
I could go on and on about your affiliations with vaccine manufacturers and drug companies
but I believe the point has been made adnauseam.
One of Congressman Burton's assertions is that an inherent conflict of interest may exist
amongst the people who decide what gets injected into our children's veins. The
Congressman understands that many of the individuals in our halls of government who make
health decisions affecting our children get money from the very drug companies they are
supposed to be regulating. During the hearings, when Coleen Boyle of the CDC was asked if
she thought there was anything wrong with such a conflict she was literally speechless.
Wayne L. Pines your behavior is a text book example of what Congressman Burton and tens of
thousands of parents disdain. As a former employee of the FDA you use your clout to
influence what should be a scientifically sound,reasonable and objective decision making
process. But even with all of your industry's money and consultants and PR firms and
communication experts and doctors on payrolls you are still missing one key ingredient -
the truth. The truth can't be bought, spun, manipulated, or turned into a sound bite.
Parents know the truth when they watch their children become ill, disabled and die. So
despite your supreme efforts to sell more vaccines, we will not allow some greedy industry
to decide what is safe and to dictate to us what should be put into our children's bodies.
Wayne L. Pines go back to your "medical marketing research agency" and your
"communications consulting firm," shut up, and leave our children alone.
Sincerely,
Michael Horwin
Father of Alexander - a vaccine injured child
who passed away at the age of 2 ½ years old
Footnotes:
1) http://www.therametrix.com/staff.html
http://www.therametrix.com/wayne.html
2) http://www.fdli.org/conf/medsymagd.htm
3) http://www.diahome.org/dhp2d12.htm
4) http://www.ihealthcoalition.org/content/fda_1.html
5) http://www.pnc.com.au/~cafmr/newsl/prozac.html
6) http://www.prwatch.org/prw_issues/1996-Q3/index.html
7) http://www.apcoassoc.com/gallery/gallery.html
8) http://www.therametrix.com/company.html
9) http://www.therametrix.com/clients.html
10) http://www.diahome.org/
11) http://www.diahome.org/dhp2c.htm
12) http://www.fdli.org/about/index.html