NAMI got $23 from Drug Companies

Who makes the most donations to NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness? Guess again, it’s DRUG COMPANIES! It’s no secret that NAMI lobbies big and bad with drug makers to push legislation that benefits BigPharma. Well, maybe they’re about to at least get their hands slapped by Iowa’s Senator Chuck Grassley. He’s written some letters, and poked around, and now the numbers are out. NAMI got $23 million from drug makers. Yes, almost 75% of the donations NAMI got were from pharmaceutical companies.


Michael Fitzpatrick, the executive director of NAMI promises things will change. He says that NAMI doesn’t want it to look like NAMI is “…in the pockets of pharmaceutical companies…”. Now NAMI will start posting the names of companies that donate $5,000 or more. Bet there’ll start being a lot of $4,999 dollar donations from various fringe groups and “anonymous” donors.
Here’s the story from the NYT.