A major consumer advocacy organization began consistently criticizing foes of pharmaceutical manufacturers after the industry’s top trade association directed large donations its way, a Washington Examiner review of public records has found. 

The National Consumers League, America’s oldest consumer advocacy organization, accepted no funding from Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America between 2018 and 2019. PhRMA, however, started cutting large checks to NCL in 2020, which a review of the organization’s web pages shows coincided with an explosion of criticism aimed at pharmacy benefit managers and the 340B drug pricing program — both longtime enemies of the drug industry.