Peter Pitts is co-founder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest and senior vice-president for health affairs at Manning, Selvage & Lee. Prior to founding CMPI, Peter was a senior fellow for healthcare studies at the Pacific Research Institute, a think tank based in San Francisco. From 2002-2004 Peter was the FDA’s associate commissioner for external relations, serving as the agency’s chief "messaging officer," where his challenge was to clearly define FDA’s brand image and to communicate the agency’s main themes to its many constituencies.