Durhane Wong-Rieger

Durhane Wong-Rieger, PhD, has strong links with many pharmaceutical companies via a loose network of industry-funded patient-related organisations and several marketing/public relations companies. Wong-Rieger is very prominent in the consumer advocacy field in Canada, but in recent years she has also been involved in meetings and events in Europe and Brazil and Pakistan.

Wong-Rieger is the Chair, President, CEO, or Secretary for at least six industry-funded organisations in Canada. At least four of these organisations share the same Toronto office (151 Bloor Street West, Suite 600, Toronto), with the same fax number and the same or similar phone numbers. These organisations bear the hallmarks of 'astroturf' lobby groups – front groups that are set up to lobby for commercial or other interests in the guise of community groups. Several of these organisations would be likely to be perceived as charities, but only the Canadian Organization for Rare Disorders is included in Canada Revenue Agency's list of Canadian registered charities.

A number of key themes dominate the public face of the groups with which Wong-Rieger is involved:

• the need and right of patients to participate in policy processes in relation to access to drugs, both internationally and within specific jurisdictions
• the need and right of patients to receive better information about drugs; this has included a consistent and explicit call for legalisation of direct-to-consumer advertising
• the need and right of patients to have better and faster access to drugs
• the need for the health system to be patient-focused/centred/driven
• the claim that Canada is the only developed country (or one of very few) without an orphan drug policy
• barriers inherent in Canada's single-payer healthcare system

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