Health consumer organisations accept millions of dollars a year in sponsorship from pharma companies and this may be having an undue influence on their activities, academics say.
Pharmaceutical company funding of $8-9 million a year is channelled to a handful of patient groups for conditions that are treated with high cost medications marketed by those companies, Sydney University researchers have found.
In a review of pharma industry sponsorship of 230 patient organisations from 2013 to 2016 they found that the lion’s share of $34.5 million funding went to groups representing people with conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, arthritis and IBD.
The review also found that the biggest pharma industry sponsors tended to have drugs under consideration for the conditions covered by the most highly funded groups.
“This raises concerns about potential commercial influence on the activities of health consumer organizations,” they wrote in the International Journal of Health Services.
“Considering the important role that consumer groups play in education, advocacy, and health policy, strategies to prevent undue influence from corporate donors are urgently needed,” they added.
Health consumer organisation | Industry funding (2013-2016) |
Macular Disease Foundation Australia | $4,107,981 |
Lung Foundation Australia | $2,196,406 |
MS Australia | $1,396,065 |
Arthritis Australia | $1,351,259 |
Rare Cancers Australia | $1,213,470 |
Leukaemia Foundation | $1,153,674 |
Hepatitis Australia | $1,097,028 |
Myeloma Australia | $1,031,166 |
Crohn’s & Colitis Australia | $851,256 |
The researchers derived their findings from transparency reports that have become a disclosure requirement for pharma industry members of the Medicines Australia lobby group.