NAMI Board Member Was Paid Consultant on AZ's Seroquel, Documents Say

(MoneyWatch)  Jim Dailey, a former National Alliance of the Mentally Ill policy director and board member, was a paid consultant for AstraZeneca's Seroquel marketing team, according to a set of documents that include a contract Dailey signed with the company.

• Download the NAMI/Seroquel documents here.

Dailey was paid $600 to attend a Seroquel consultants meeting in December 2003 at AZ's Wilmington, Del., HQ, according to the documents. BNET received the documents in an email from a person who did not reveal their identity. Dailey, AZ and NAMI did not immediately respond to messages requesting comment on the documents. BNET will update this post if any of them respond later.

NAMI's funding -- about half of which comes from drug companies -- is currently the subject of an inquiry by Sen. Charles Grassley. NAMI's executive director recently told the New York Times, "I understand that NAMI gets painted as being in the pockets of pharmaceutical companies, and somehow that all we care about is pharmaceuticals ... It's simply not true." He promised to scale back drug company funding.

At the 2003 Seroquel meeting, Dailey (pictured), along with NAMI's Mike Fitzpatrick, director policy research institute and NAMI's Chuck Harmon, director of corporate relations met with several AZ execs in CNS brand leadership and sales, according to the documents. This was their agenda:

• Seroquel vision
• Role of Advocacy Groups
• Increasing role of State/Medicaid with MH issues and MAP initiatives
• Ensuring access for patients

"MAP" sometimes stands for "Medication Algorithm Project," which states use to decide when mental patients within their care should be prescribed certain drugs. The sooner along the MAP timeline a company can place its drug, the more of that drug the company will likely sell.

Dailey's contract offered him airfare and limousine service to and from the meeting, the documents state.

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