May 28, 2004  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.  | COMMENTS     

Abner Mason, a gay Republican member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, may have violated government ethics rules or practices by using his position on the advisory panel to promote the interests of U.S. pharmaceutical companies, an AIDS activist has charged.

Genevieve Clavreul, who describes herself as an advocate for accountability of AIDS organizations, said in a May 9 letter to PACHA co-chair Tom Coburn that Mason appears to be using his position as chair of PACHA’s International Committee as a platform for promoting drug industry causes through an organization he helped create called the AIDS Responsibility Project.

Coburn told the Blade on May 26 through an e-mail message that he instructed PACHA’s executive director, Josephine Robinson, to forward Clavreul’s letter to the inspector general’s office at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The Inspector General’s office investigates allegations of potential violations of laws or regulations by HHS officials or related agencies. HHS provides administrative support for PACHA.

The possible investigation of Mason by the HHS inspector general comes at a time when Mason and his AIDS Responsibility Project have taken positions in sharp disagreement with AIDS activists over the proposed use of low-cost, generic AIDS drugs produced in foreign countries.

Mason drafted and pushed through a resolution at PACHA’s March meeting calling on President Bush to refrain from using funds from his $15 billion emergency AIDS relief program for African and Caribbean nations for AIDS drugs that do not meet the stringent drug approval process of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.

Critics say the resolution favors U.S. drug companies, who hope to supply drugs to Africa under the president’s program, because those drugs already have FDA approval. Such a policy would delay the use of foreign-made generic AIDS drugs that cost a fraction of what the U.S.-made drugs cost, and could delay their use by thousands of Africans who are dying of AIDS each month, critics charge.

Bill Pierce, a spokesperson for HHS, disputes claims that the FDA procedures would delay generic drugs from coming into use.

But Mason’s dual role as a member of PACHA and head of an organization advocating for positions considered favorable to large drug companies could create a flap in the midst of the presidential election, further straining the president’s status among gays and AIDS advocates.

The Blade reached Mason on his cell phone Tuesday seeking comment. Mason said he was in an airplane and had to hang up, but would be available on Wednesday. Mason did not return several calls seeking comment on Wednesday.

‘Drug company stooge’?
“Abner Mason is a drug company stooge,” said Paul Davis, an official with Health Gap, an AIDS advocacy group that accuses the FDA of caving in to drug companies by not allowing the immediate use of generic AIDS drugs produced in India for the Africa relief program.

Davis was the only AIDS group representative willing to talk on the record about Mason and the AIDS Responsibility Project. Others, speaking on condition that they not be identified, said they had no objections to Mason serving as an advocate for drug companies. But they said they were troubled that he has not disclosed his ties to pharmaceutical firms that appear to be funding at least some of the ARP’s activities and most likely Mason’s salary.

PACHA is a 35-member advisory body that makes recommendations to the president and the HHS secretary on AIDS-related issues. Its members are not paid. Many of them come from the fields of AIDS research and medicine as well as from private industry and community-based advocacy groups.

Pierce said he would look into the status of any inspector general’s office review of Clavreul’s letter, but Pierce did not provide additional information by press time.

Pierce said the HHS general counsel’s office has issued guidelines about possible conflicts of interest for members of all presidential advisory bodies and that members of such bodies are required to comply with them.

In her letter to Coburn, Clavreul noted that Mason helped create the AIDS Responsibility Project in 2003, one year after President Bush appointed him to PACHA. She noted that Mason appears to be the ARP’s sole employee. Clavreul told the Blade that sources in the “AIDS community” informed her that ARP receives substantial funding from pharmaceutical companies or trade groups representing those companies.

ARP’s Web site makes no mention of its source of funding. However, it lists the Pfizer pharmaceutical company and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA, as two of several organizations with which the group has “partnerships.”

Clavreul said sources from AIDS ...