Health Advocacy Groups Take Drug Company Cash—Often Without Full Disclosures, Report Says

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http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/health-advocacy-groups-take-drug-company-cashoften-without-full-disclosures

Health Advocacy Groups Take

Drug Company Cash—Often Without Full Disclosures, Report Says

by n

Wang

ProPublica, Jan. 13, 2011, 3:14 p.m.

We’ve reported extensively on the ties between pharmaceutical

companies and the physicians they fund to speak,

consult and do research [2].

But doctors aren’t the only ones taking money from drug

companies—and they’re not the only stakeholders in the field

of health whose public disclosures aren’t complete.

According to a new

study [3] in the

American Journal of Public Health, not-for-profit health

advocacy groups like the American Diabetes Association and the

National Alliance on Mental Illness also get money from drug

companies in the form of grants that—more often than

not—aren’t disclosed by those groups.

The study examined more than 160 health advocacy

organizations that received funding from Eli Lilly in the

first half of 2007. (Lilly was the first company to make its

grant registry public.) Here’s what the analysis found:

As an aggregate, 25% of HAOs acknowledged Lilly funding

anywhere on their Web site. Eighteen percent acknowledged

Lilly in their 2007 annual report, 1% acknowledged Lilly on

a corporate sponsors page, and 10% acknowledged Lilly as the

sponsor of the grant event reported in the [Lilly Grant

Registry.]

Health advocacy groups often advocate for research and the

approval of new drugs on top of promoting public awareness.

According to the study, their reputation as a trusted resource

for information on specific diseases and their treatments

should prompt “far more detailed” disclosure of their

corporate grants and industry relationships.

This report isn’t the first time such ties have been

spotlighted.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, came under

similar scrutiny back in 2009 when Sen. Grassley, a

top Republican, began making inquiries.

From 2006 to 2008, the group took in nearly

$23 million [4] in drug

company donations—about three-quarters of its fund-raising. At

the time, NAMI’s executive director told The New York Times

that “the percentage of money from pharma has been higher than

we have wanted it to be” and promised greater disclosures.

Following the revelations about NAMI, Sen. Grassley sent

letters [5] to 33 health

advocacy groups asking them to disclose details about their

financial ties to drug and device makers. He has not released

the responses he received from the groups.

Today’s report, however, highlighted continued concerns about

the degree to which a group’s funding influences its advocacy

and helps boost sales for drug companies making donations.

Here’s an example from the report, involving NAMI:

This lack of transparency is disappointing because, either

by design or through a convergence of interests, the HAOs in

the current study pursued activities that promoted the sale

of Lilly products.

In the area of neurosciences, Lilly gave NAMI $450,000 for

its Campaign for the Mind of America. NAMI has advocated

that cost should not be a consideration when prescribing for

patients. ‘‘For the most severely disabled,’’ insisted NAMI,

‘‘effective treatment often means access to the newest

medications such as atypical anti- psychotic and

anti-depressive agents. . . . Doctors must be allowed to

utilize the latest breakthrough in medical science . . .

without bureaucratic restrictions to the access for

life-saving medications.’’To the degree that NAMI’s campaign

succeeded, the market for Lilly’s neuroscience drugs

expanded.

As we’ve noted [6], the health care law contains

a provision requiring greater disclosure of drug company

payments to physicians by 2013, but it does not include

company payments to health advocacy organizations.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amagill/3366720659/

http://projects.propublica.org/docdollars/

http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/health-advocacy-groups-and-the-pharmaceutical-industry

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/health/22nami.html

http://grassley.senate.gov/news/Article.cfm?customel_dataPageID_1502=24413

http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/payments-to-doctors-by-most-pharma-companies-still-remain-secret

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