[Ip-health] Looking at some of PhRMA's grants to US organizations in 2008

[Malini Aisola]

http://keionline.org/node/779

Looking at some of PhRMA's grants to US organizations in 2008
By KEI Staff

In the United States, tax exempt non-profit organizations are subject
some some requirements for financial disclosure via the IRS form 990,
which is available to the public. The disclosure requirements cover most
U.S. based trade associations, including the Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the trade association for some 28
"member" companies.

While PhRMA's name includes "Manufacturers of America," many member
companies are foreign owned, including for example: AstraZeneca (Sweden,
UK), Astellas (Japan), Boehringer Ingelheim (Germany), Daiichi Sankyo
(Japan), Eisal (Japan) EMD Serono (Germany, Switzerland), GSK (UK),
Lundbeck (Denmark), Novartis (Switzerland), Otsuka (Japan),
sanofi-aventis (Germany, France), Takeda (Japan) and others.

The amount of useful information available in a 990 return varies. There
are, of course, lots of ways a trade association can make it difficult
to follow the money -- such as by hiring a public relations or lobbying
firm, that in turn can give money to various academics or non-profit
organizations that are paid to echo the views and/or support the
interests of a trade association. (See for example Archstone Consulting
hiring Lawton Burns of the Wharton School, to co-author "The
Biopharmaceutical Sector=E2=80=99s Impact on the U.S. Economy: Analysis at =
the
National, State, and Local Levels.")

In PhRMA's 220 page 2008 990 filing, Schedule I-1 reports "Grants and
Other Assistance to Organizations, Governments, and Individuals in the
U.S., paid in 2008." This includes more than 300 itemized entries
totaling $17,832,944. While $17.8 million seems like a lot of money, it
was less than 7 percent of the PhRMA budget that year, and a tiny
fraction of the overall industry spending to influence policy (It does
not include money spent directly by companies themselves, or through
other trade associations). The following table provides a few of the
grants reported by PhRMA on their 2008 tax return.

[Snip]




--
Malini Aisola
Knowledge Ecology International
1621 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 500, Washington DC 20009
malini.aisola@keionline.org|Tel: +1.202.332.2670|Fax: +1.202.332.2673