How Big Pharma Hijacked Patient Groups

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From The Breach: “Once a vibrant grassroots social movement, patient groups in Canada have become a powerful cluster of corporate-influenced organizations, with leaders whose values, beliefs and ties align more closely with the private sector than the public interest.

For over two decades, aided by the same public relations firms that work for pharmaceutical companies, these industry-funded patient groups in Canada have brought the full weight of lobby tactics to bear on the government and the country’s drug agencies.

Patients critical of industry have been sidelined and patient communities divided, while an elite group of leaders—many with no direct experience with the serious diseases their groups represent—earn six-figure salaries and wield significant influence shaping policies that reverberate through the healthcare system.

Understanding this transformation—how patient groups were co-opted into fighting affordable medicine—is crucial to understanding the incredible grip that pharmaceutical companies have over government policy today.”

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4 COMMENTS

  1. What’s happening in Canada is mirrored in the United States. Pharmaceutical companies donate money to patient advocacy groups, which then support Big Pharma’s positions. Members of these groups complain to regulators, journalists and members of Congress that if pharmaceutical companies are reigned in research will be restricted and patients will die.

    As an aside, some of the media (Wall Street Journal editorial pages, for example) are no more than mouthpieces for pharmaceutical companies.

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    • Donation data reported on websites by drug makers and patient advocacy groups in Canada that receive industry funding is “haphazard, inconsistent and incomplete,” underscoring the difficulties in deciphering the influence these companies may have on patient interests, a new analysis finds.

      Specifically, information about the value of donations made by drug companies, the years in which contributions were given, and the percent of income the money represented for patient groups was limited. Consequently, donations made and received often could not be matched, according to the analysis in the International Journal of Health Policy and Management.

      ED SILVERMAN PHARMALOT

      Seems as if there is disagreement about these matters.

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