Good News: A Dozen Drug & Device Companies To Shine Light On Grants To Non-Profits, Physicians
This morning news reports revealed that a dozen drug and device makers will be providing more information about their financial contributions to advocacy groups and physicians. The companies responded to a letter from Senator Chuck Grassley. He asked them to reveal whether they would be following in Eli Lilly and Company’s footsteps and disclosing monies they provide to outside individuals and groups.
According to the Associated Press: “A dozen of the nation’s leading drug and device makers have told Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, that they have plans or are working on plans to publicly disclose grants to outside groups. The details will be provided on each company’s Web sites.”
Pharmaceutical industry watchdogs say drug and device makers are seeking to head off legislation that would require them to disclose this information. “If they were doing this out of the goodness of their heart, they would have done so decades ago,” Dr. Peter Lurie of Public Citizen told the Associated Press.
Whatever The Motive, Drug Firms’ Move Is A Smart One
In April 2007, my firm Envision Solutions released a survey revealing that many Americans are deeply skeptical of drug firms’ motives for supporting non-profits. According to the nationwide online poll, 43% of US adults believe that pharmaceutical companies fund groups like the American Heart Association and the National Kidney Foundation in order to get more people to buy their products or medicines. This distrust threatens to sap the power of pharma-non-profit alliances and lead to greater regulation of the industry’s communications and grantmaking activities.
This is why I believe, that whatever the motive, drug firms are taking a step in the right direction by disclosing information about their financial ties to non-profits. In fact, the benefits go both ways. If companies and their partners do more to increase the transparency around their relationships, people will have less cause to believe they are being dishonest. In addition, it will make it much easier to recognize the benefits of these public-private partnerships.
