[Ip-health] Sign on: Pharma Should Disclose Organizational Funding

[robert weissman]

- Please Forward -

Dear Friends,

Essential Action will this week close out our letter to pharmaceutical
companies urging that they disclose their charitable and educational
contributions.

If you would like to sign on, please send your organization's name (or
your name and organizational affiliation, if any, if you would like to
sign as an individual), your mailing address and email address to
<marcia@essential.org> or <pharmadisclose@gmail.com>. The deadline for
sign ons is Thursday, July 19, 2007.

As you may recall, the letter highlights the May announcement by Eli
Lilly that it is now disclosing its charitable and educational
contributions, at least in the United States. Disclosure of
pharmaceutical industry funding to charitable and educational
organizations is by no means a complete cure for the problems related to
such sponsorships, but it is a start.

Our sign-on letter asks all other major pharmaceutical companies to
follow Lilly's lead, but to disclose all contributions on a global
basis. (We will also ask PhRMA and the IFPMA to adopt policies
recommending member companies make such disclosures; and for Lilly to
broaden its policy to the entire world (which it says it is considering).)

For background material on the issue, please see our website, at
<www.pharmadisclose.org>.

The sign-on letter and list of current signers is reproduced below.

Best,

Robert Weissman
Essential Action
202-387-8030
rob@essential.org

*     *     *

Dear [Company],

We are writing to urge you to publish a complete list of all of the
charitable and educational grants and gifts made by [Company], its
subsidiaries, affiliates and associated foundations. This list should be
made available on your company website, include the amounts of each
grant and the recipient, and cover grants and gifts made on a global
basis. Such a system of disclosure would impose minimal burdens on your
company, since it must already compile this information, but the
disclosures would have significant public benefits.

There is quite extensive evidence that pharmaceutical industry
charitable and educational grants have been abused to influence public
health and public policy decisions improperly. For example:

* Purportedly educational programs sponsored by industry may improperly
promote drugs for off-label uses.(1)

* Policy think tanks and advocacy groups that receive funding from the
pharmaceutical industry often weigh in on important policy debates --
for example, in op-ed pieces -- without disclosing their industry ties.(2)

* Patient organizations receiving industry support often tout products
sold by corporate donors, but fail to highlight safety concerns. These
groups may also over-promote diseases and drug treatments sold by their
corporate donors.(3) They may lobby for inclusion of products on
government formularies without disclosing their industry ties, and favor
the products of corporate sponsors over others.(4)

* Charitable organizations may be used as a conduit to fund doctors or
their research, circumventing normal disclosure requirements and rules.(5)

Disclosing industry funding to charitable and educational organizations
is by no means a complete cure for these and related problems -- many of
us support much stronger restrictions or outright bans on many industry
sponsorship practices -- but it is a start.

The industry has begun to make some modest moves in the direction of
disclosure. As you know, one major pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly,
recently began publishing its charitable and educational contributions,
at least in the United States. And the Association of the British
Pharmaceutical Industry's code of practice requires disclosure of
support for patient groups, though not disclosure of the amounts.

It is time now for each company to fully disclose charitable and
educational contribution information, on a global basis.

We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Essential Action,
Washington, DC, USA

Agua Buena Human Rights Association
San Jose, Costa Rica

AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Los Angeles, CA, USA

Albanian Consumers Association
Tirana, Albania

Alliance for Human Research Protection
New York, USA

American Public Health Association
Washington, DC USA

Association of Conscious Consumers
Budapest, Hungary

Breast Cancer Action
San Francisco, California, USA

Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB )
Dhaka, Bangladesh

Consumer Information Network
Nairobi, Kenya

Consumers Union
Khujand City, Tajikistan

DES Action USA
Columbus, OH, USA

Families USA
Washington, DC, USA

Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (FOMCA)
Selangor, Malaysia

The Finnish Consumers=92 Association
Helsinki, Finland

Forum for Protection of Public Interest
Kathmandu, Nepal

Ghaqda tal-Konsumaturi
Valletta, Malta

Health Action International Africa
Nairobi, Kenya

Health Action International Asia Pacific
Colombo, Sri Lanka

Health Action International Europe
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Health Action International Latin America
Lima, Peru

Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge
Delhi, India/New York, USA

Integrity in Science Project, Center for Science in the Public Interest
Washington, DC, USA

KEPKA - Consumers' Protection Centre
Thessaloniki, Greece

Knowledge Ecology International
Washington, DC, USA

National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP)
Washington, DC, USA

National Research Center for Women & Families
Washington, DC, USA

National Women's Health Network
Washington, DC, USA

New View Campaign on Women's Sexual Problems
New York, NY, USA

Oxfam International
Oxford, UK

Our Bodies Ourselves
Boston, MA, USA

Public Citizen
Washington, DC, USA

Togolese Consumer Association - Association Togolaise des Consommateurs
(ATC)
Lome, Togo

Universities Allied for Essential Medicine
Montr=E9al, Canada

Women and Health Protection
Toronto, Canada

Warren Bell, MD CM CCFP
Active Staff member and President of Medical Staff
Shuswap Lake General Hospital
Salmon Arm, BC, Canada

Dolors Capell=E0
Barcelona, Spain

John Carroll
Christian Health Association of Malawi
Lilongwe, Malawi

Mardge Cohen, MD
Cook County (Stroger) Hospital
Chicago IL, USA

Spring Gombe
Knowledge Ecology International
Z=FCrich, Switzerland

Andrew Herxheimer
London, UK

Stuart Jones
Wales, UK

Karyn Kaplan, Director, Policy and Development
Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group (TTAG)
Bangkok, Thailand

Abby Lippman, PhD
Montreal, Canada

Nicholaus Mamseri
Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania

Suerie Moon, PhD Candidate and Doctoral Research Fellow
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Cambridge, MA, USA

Kirsten Myhr
RELIS Drug Information Centre
Oslo, Norway

Malgorzata Niepokulczycka, President
Polish Consumer Federation
Warsaw, Poland

Judit Rius Sanjuan
Washington, DC, USA

Gordon Schiff
Senior Attending Physician, Cook County Stroger Hospital
Professor of Medicine, Rush Medical College
Chicago, IL, USA

S.K. Smith
Tamarack Communications
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Bill Vaughan
Consumers Union
Washington, DC, USA


(1) See, e.g., "Warner-Lambert to Pay $430 Million to Resolve Criminal &
Civil Health Care Liability Relating to Off-Label Promotion," U.S.
Department of Justice news release, May 13, 2004 ("The company also
sponsored purportedly 'independent medical education' events on
off-label Neurontin uses with extensive input from Warner-Lambert
regarding topics, speakers, content, and participants"). For a fuller
discussion of this issue, see "Use of Educational Grants by
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers," Committee Staff, Committee on Finance,
U.S. Senate, April 2007.

(2) See, for example, Philip Shenon, "On Opinion Page, Lobby's Hand is
Often Unseen," New York Times, December 23, 2005.

(3) Tinker Ready, "Divided Loyalties?; Nonprofit Health Advocacy Groups
Like to Portray Themselves as Patients' Allies. Can They Serve Corporate
Benefactors at the Same Time?." Washington Post, February 7, 2006.

(4) Thomas Ginsberg, "Donations tie drug firms and nonprofits: Many
patient groups reveal few, if any, details on relationships with
pharmaceutical donors," Philadelphia Inquirer, May 28, 2006.

(5) Reed Abelson, "Charities Tied to Doctors Get Drug Industry Gifts,"
New York Times, June 28, 2006.