Peter Pitts' CMPI Targeted Over Anti-Healthcare Reform Video Game

(MoneyWatch)  The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest is a "corporate front group" that sponsored the near-riots at town hall meetings on healthcare and spreads misinformation about healthcare reform, according to a report by ThinkProgress, a liberal blogging group. It even produced an anti-reform video game, "Super Race to the Hospital," the site alleges.

CMPI's anti-reform agenda dovetails neatly with its links to PR group Porter Novelli, PN's corporate parent Omnicom (OMC) and its health insurance clients, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Health Insurance Plans of New York and HealthNet, TP claims.

Pharma bloggers have long speculated (off the record, that is) about the possibility of a "takedown" of CMPI and its DrugWonks blog. The blog, written by CMPI chief Peter Pitts and Robert Goldberg, takes a stridently conservative line (sample headline: "The Junk Science of Obamacare"). It recently defended the pharmaceutical business over its recent drug price rises, for instance. It appears that TP's Lee Fang has finally put the effort in.

For industry watchers, one of the more gossipy bits focuses on how Pitts earns his living:

In March of this year, Pitts became the head of international corporate PR firm Porter Novelli's healthcare division. Despite the fact that CMPI's latest 990 tax form states that Pitts spends 40 hours a week at CMPI, a representative from Porter Novelli told ThinkProgress that Pitts actually works on a day to day basis in his office at Porter Novelli. Asked about how the firm engages in the health reform debate, ThinkProgress was told by Porter Novelli that Pitts is "pretty much our voice."

If you read it closely, you'll find that there's less there than meets the eye, but it's presented as some sort of conspiracy. Did anyone not know that Pitts works for both PN and CMPI? It also rehashes the whole Eli Lilly/NPR/Infinite Mind episode. Pitts told BNET tha the author did not call him for comment prior to publishing the piece. He added:

So many errors and so silly.

My favorite part is the revelation that CMPI produced an anti-healthcare reform video game. Called "Super Race to the Hospital," players must steer an ambulance to the ER while avoiding Big Gummint roadblocks. It's slightly less sophisticated than Pfizer (PFE)'s aborted Viagra "Viva Cruiser" game.