Letter to CEO of Associated Press Asking for an End to Eli Lilly Funding
Sent by email on January 16, at 1:34pm (ET)
To the attention of Associated Press CEO & President Daisy Veerasingham:
cc: VP Jessica Bruce, VP Karen Kaisar, VP Julie Pace, Board Chair Gracie Martorie
Recently Honest Media has been reporting on conflicts of interest we have found in reporting at the Associated Press (AP). Based on some clear biases that have been documented, I am writing to request that the AP ends any and all ties with the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly through financial contributions from the Lilly Endowment.
Ms. Veerasingham, you are distinguished as the first woman to head one of the most influential media organizations in the world, and the oldest newswire in America. As you yourself have expressed, “The importance of AP as an unbiased, factual news source cannot be overstated – our journalism reaches more than half the world’s population every day.”
Nevertheless, the AP is accepting money from over 25 outside organizations, including the Rockefeller Foundation and Carnegie Corp., which raises questions as to what motivations might influence your reporters and editors.
While funding from each of these organizations raises various concerns, there is absolutely no question in the case of Eli Lilly that accepting any of their money in any form permanently soils all AP reporting in the area of health, medicine, and the pharmaceutical industry. How can the AP be expected to fairly cover medical questions when receiving money from such an influential pharmaceutical company with a direct stake in pushing its products on to the public? It is particularly concerning when this company has a known history of serious negligence that has harmed consumers.
Please find below a short list of Eli Lilly crimes and corruption.
Eli Lilly Crimes:
According to Violation Tracker, Eli Lilly has paid $2,831,299,676 for crimes, penalties and settlements just from the year 2000 to present day.
As of 2022, a whistleblower is currently suing Eli Lilly for poor manufacturing practices and falsifying data for one of its best selling drugs to treat diabetes.
In 2012, Eli Lilly paid nearly $30 million in fines and penalties when pleading guilty to bribing the countries of Russia, Brazil, China and Poland.
In 2009, Eli Lilly agreed to pay over $1.415 billion in fines and penalties pleading guilty to misbranding their drug Zyprexa for seniors which induced diabetes. At the time this was the largest criminal fine in history.
In 2005, Eli Lilly agreed to pay $66 million in fines and penalties pleading guilty to misbranding their drug Evista.
In 2004, the British Medical Journal uncovered that Eli Lilly knew their drug Prozac had dangerous side effects. Nevertheless, the company took out full page ads across the nation throughout the 1980s denying the very dangers they secretly knew were in fact real.
In 1979, Eli Lilly agreed it had created an illegal monopoly of insulin, controlling over 85% of the global market.
These offenses are just a few of the disgraceful, corrupt practices for which Eli Lilly has been forced to admit or plead guilty. Please review a far more extensive list of corruption and illegalities from Eli Lilly at the Corporate Research Project.
The facts are abundantly clear and speak for themselves. In order to maintain the “unbiased, factual news source” that you yourself state the Associated Press must be, the only moral action is to permanently end all funding connected to the pharmaceutical corporate giant Eli Lilly.
I look forward to your response.
Kind regards,
Michael Kane
Managing Editor, Honest Media