46brooklyn, the seemingly small nonprofit research operation, is entangled in a financial network leading to the top lobbying arm of the pharmaceutical industry. It has been planting what it presents as independent research, which often supports the policy goals of drug manufacturers, across the legacy media. The group’s ties to Big Pharma, however, are seldom disclosed by reporters.

Few financial details are available about 46brooklyn directly, as the group reports less than $50,000 in revenue per year, which allows it to file a 990-N tax return, a form containing less information than a traditional nonprofit disclosure. Despite bringing in less than $50,000 per year, however, the organization employs a team of four, regularly publishes research, and successfully places that research in publications that millions of people read. The answer as to how a nonprofit research organization with seemingly so few resources can have this degree of impact can be found by examining a for-profit consulting firm called 3 Axis Advisors.

3 Axis Advisors states on its website that its “team also dedicates significant time and resources to power 46brooklyn Research.” The two entities share the same four staff members, according to their respective websites. By taking in revenue through a for-profit arm and generating research through a nonprofit group, 46brooklyn is able to avoid filing a traditional, more detailed nonprofit disclosure form.

Indeed, 3 Axis Advisors takes in considerable income, with much of it coming from organizations linked to the pharmaceutical industry. In 2023, the consulting firm partnered with America’s Agenda Healthcare Education Fund on a research project that cost well over $300,000, according to tax disclosures. America’s Agenda Healthcare Education Fund, during its infancy in 2008, received over $1 million in funding from Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, better known as PhRMA, the primary trade association representing the interests of American drug manufacturers. 

America’s Agenda Healthcare Education Fund’s parent organization, a left-leaning 501(c)(4) known simply as America’s Agenda, lists PhRMA as one of its partners. Additionally, multiple members of the organization’s board of directors have ties to the pharmaceutical industry, according to the organization’s website. Among them are former Novo Nordisk public affairs executive Brian Kelly, PhRMA Senior Vice President Scott LaGanga, HMC HealthWorks CEO Janis DiMonaco, pharmacy executive Clark Marcus, and healthcare executive Cliff Robertson. 

PhRMA makes clear on its website that one of its primary objectives is to blame pharmacy benefit managers, entities that serve as the middlemen between insurance companies and pharmacies, for high drug costs. America’s Agenda, 3 Axis Advisors, and 46brooklyn work in tandem to advance the same goal.

America’s Agenda provides almost all the funding for the PBM Accountability Project, a nonprofit group that exists to shift public opinion and policy against pharmacy benefit managers while also sharing leadership with America’s Agenda. While America’s Agenda funds and staffs the PBM Accountability Project, the nonprofit group paid 3 Axis Advisors $410,000 between 2022 and 2023 for “research and analysis,” tax filings show.

When 46brooklyn’s research is cited in the media, it often cuts against pharmacy benefit managers. 46brooklyn Chief Executive Antonio Ciaccia, for instance, was quoted in a November 2024 Wall Street Journal piece as saying that “the inconsistent and disconnected way that PBMs arrive at drug prices makes Medicare look less like a trustworthy marketplace intended to yield low, sober prices and more like a casino.” No mention of 46brooklyn’s ties to the pharmaceutical industry was made in the piece. 

Similarly, Ciaccia was quoted in a December 2023 New York Times report as saying that the problem in drug spending comes from “this intersection between P.B.M.s and pharmacies.” 

Other outlets that ran stories citing Ciaccia or 46brooklyn without noting their ties to the pharmaceutical industry included CBS News, NPR, CNN, Reuters, NBC News, and KFF Health News, among many other outlets.

A spokesperson for Reuters defended the outlet’s citation of 46brooklyn research.

“Reuters sources data and information about drug pricing and healthcare costs from a variety of sources,” the spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “In its December 29, 2023, story, Reuters clearly noted that some of its data came from not-for-profit group 46brooklyn, which is related to 3 Axis Advisors, a healthcare research firm.”

While much of 46brooklyn’s ties to the industry are buried in tax disclosures and other difficult-to-parse documents, others are out in the open, raising questions as to why professional journalists failed to mention them.

Multiple 46brooklyn board members have financial interests in the pharmaceutical industry, according to their biographies on the group’s website. Scott McGohan, one director, is the CEO of one of the largest independent health insurance brokers in Ohio. Jeff Bartone, another director, is the president of a regional pharmacy chain with four locations and more than 50 employees. Michael Sharp, a third director, heads a consulting firm that works with pharmaceutical manufacturers.

The pharmaceutical industry has taken heat recently for its alleged influence over news coverage, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, having argued that revenue from drug advertising gives the industry influence over the media. Kennedy has since voiced his desire to ban drug companies from airing TV advertisements. 

The news outlets mentioned above and 46brooklyn did not respond to requests for comment.