PhRMA panel challenged

Meetings between HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, senior HHS officials and a group of pharmaceutical industry CEOs violate federal law, according to Public Citizen, a consumer group affiliated with Ralph Nader.

In a letter to Thompson last week, Public Citizen Health Research Group director Sidney Wolfe complains that the PhRMA Emergency Preparedness Task Force members have been meeting regularly with cabinet members, "but under the law, a federal agency that uses such an advisory committee must file a charter with the agency and appropriate members of Congress." ...