A Grassley Nemesis And His Ties To Pharma
18 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // November 17th, 2009 // 8:21 am
Who is Thomas Sullivan and why is his name popping up lately? Sullivan is known for a few things - president of Rockpointe, a medical education communications company; a founding member of the Association of Clinical Researchers and Educators, and his Policy and Medicine blog, where he rails against government oversight of the pharmaceutical industry. Besides being an avid defender of CME, he is also a vociferous critic of Chuck Grassley, the Senate Republican who is investigating various pharma issues, including CME.
Over the past few days, however, Sullivan has been scrutinized himself. That’s because the Drug Industry Document Archive at the University of California at San Francisco released something Sullivan didn’t want made public - his funding from pharma. In a July 6, 2009, letter to Herb Kohl, a Senate Democrat who is also probing pharma issues, Sullivan outlines various Rockpointe programs. But he bitterly complained that Kohl’s staff, which he says he approached to discuss CME, asked for the material. “An inquiry of this nature will likely discourage other concerned ‘good Samaritans’ from exercising their rights as involved citizens to bring issues of concern to the attention of the committee,” he wrote.
At issue is the extent to which CME and financing arrangements may unduly influence the practice of medicine. For his part, Sullivan listed payments (see here) from drugmakers to Rockpointe that included about $4.2 million in 2006; $8.7 million in 2007; $7.3 million in 2008 and about $3.2 million during this year’s first half. So it’s not suprising that he would criticize Senate investigations - this is how he makes his living.
In any event, Sullivan does enjoy hounding Grassley. In this blog post, he says the Senator seriously overreaches in probing academic conflicts of interest; in another, he calls Grassley and his staff ‘embarassing’ and ’shameful,’ and he recently compared Grassley to a class bulley. Curiously, Sullivan implies that he is familiar with the thought processes of Grassley’s staff. We wonder how that is possible.
Hat tip to The Carlat Psychiatry Blog
Theresa Barry
just a typo here:
Clinical Researchers and Edutcators
Claudia
8.7 Million? geez, I need to stop teaching and get one of these jobs
Jim MD
All right. This one time I’ll let you ask me about my affairs.
Is it true? Is it?
No.
done with all that
Gee. You’d think that if you were a hard working capitalist, you would be too caught up in work to spend all your working hours tracking Grassley.
Looks like Mr. Sullivan’s advocacy for the pharma industry affords him more free time than others.
atlex
Oh the horror of it all. This guy is in the CME business and has gotten payments from pharma to carry out CME programs. Is this somehow a surprise? After all, it is well known that he is president of a CME company and has been speaking as such. Does it matter whether he has been paid $100 (an unsuccessful business person) or $100 million dollars (a successful businessperson)? When the networks and publishers come out in favor of DTC, is it somehow a secret that they have a financial interest? When you as a taxpayer some out in favor of lower taxes, does it matter how much you stand to benefit as an individual?
aroundworld
Tommy:
For I don’t care too much for money, for money can’t buy me love.
Paul
I personally like to hear all sides of debates, this is one more side and I am fine with it.
Christopher
Whether people agree with industry-sponsored CME is one thing, but Sullivan’s business involves providing a regulated business service on behlaf of pharma. His records show payments from 2006 to 2009 (payments, not income). As atlex says, that’s what he does for a living. And whether it’s accurate to liken running CME programs to advocating for the pharma industry remains open to question. But Sullivan’s gripe in his letter to Kohl is about why Rockpointe was singled out for audit and scrutiny rather than any other CME provider, of which there are many (for now). The implication of pay-back because of his public Grassley-bashing is clear. And wishing to avoid disclosure of proprietary business info is not unusual nor an indication of anything untoward. Even people who don’t work for pharma would request that.
Lisa Van Syckel
Christopher,
I have to admire, Grassley and his staff, on their tenacity. Do you think Mr. Sullivan will tone down his boisterous voice?
Christopher
Lisa,
I have no idea. I don’t know Mr Sullivan. I think in his position I might tone it down, but there again I’m not in his shoes. Perhaps if I were I’d be trying to protect my business against what I saw as unwarranted scrutiny. It’s tough as a small business owner to get anything like equal airtime as the politicians, so I suppose the internet, blogs etc provide the chance to reply, as we all know very well. How Mr S chooses to do that is another thing.
Lyle
So is Sullivan feeling his own embarrassment now?
Mitch
To: Staffs of Senators Grassley and Kohl
Fr: Mitch
Re: Thank you
As a competitor in the CME industry, I want to thank you for releasing Mr. Sullivan’s schedule of payment information for 2006-2008. This is useful as I develop my business plans. However, you failed to include his net income, which would have been more useful (though less dramatic).
You can be sure that I will be a responsible citizen and NOT criticize your bosses or any other member of congress as I know there are consequences for doing so.
Stan
Wow! No wonder Sullivan is attacking Grassley!
Wow! He’s a paid pharma puppet!
terry
Sullivan should have spent more time doing advertising (CME) for the drug industry rather than playing attack dog
Lichtstrasse 35
Mr. Sullivan clearly has some good business development skills, good sales people, or both.
Justice in Michigan
As noted on another thread, Sullivan/Rockpointe has several connections–with the CMPI (Pitts, Inc.), and other industry champions/apologists (depending on your perspective).
This is not “shocking”–it is just useful to connect the dots.
aroundworld
CME
Cash-Money-Everywhere!!
Carey
To: Staffs of Senators Grassley and Kohl
Fr: Carey
Re: Please stop!
As a read of this blog, I’m concerned that you released Mr. Sullivan’s schedule of payment information for 2006-2008. Mr. Sullivan has spent an inordinate amount of time denouncing both of you senators on his blog, Policy and Medicine.
Criticizing a senator should protect the critic from any criticism in response….Blah, blah, blah…..