Co-creation in health

Most patient and consumer advocacy groups receive funds from the pharmaceutical industry, according to a new study released by the group PharmedOut.

 

Only a handful out of 7,685 health advocacy groups in the U.S. are completely independent of pharmaceutical industry money, according to a list the group released Oct. 13. PharmedOut is a Georgetown University Medical Center project that advances evidence-based prescribing and educates health-care professionals about pharmaceutical marketing practices.

 

And industry funding of patient groups, including websites and informational materials, is often not apparent to the average consumer, which could mislead consumers into believing they’re getting unbiased health advice.

 

“Industry funding is often not disclosed on websites or informational materials or is hidden,” PharmedOut Director Adriane Fugh-Berman told me in an Oct. 16 phone call. Funding and sponsorship is often very subtle and difficult to identify, she said.

 

In addition, she said, industry sponsorship can affect the stands patient and consumer groups are willing to take, she said.

 

Groups that accept industry funding are affected by that money, regardless of whether they think they are, she said.

 

"Look at the stands taken and not taken,” she said. “For example, where is the anger and outrage about drug costs?”

 

Fugh-Berman is an associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology and in the Department of Family Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center.

 

Further Reading:

• “Pharma 'Patient Centricity' Aids & Abets the Opioid Epidemic”; http://sco.lt/5RJse1

•  “93% of Patient Advocacy Groups Included in FDA Funding Discussions Receive $ from Pharma”; http://sco.lt/8jkvFh

• “Patient Advocacy Groups with Funding & Form Letter from @PhRMA Oppose Nevada Legislation”; http://sco.lt/6QlP9N
• “More Than Two-thirds of Patient Advocacy Groups Receive Industry Funding”; http://sco.lt/6Ftgzh

Via Pharma Guy

The new head of D.C.’s biggest drug lobby has a strategy to help overcome a tortuous year of bad publicity on pricing: More lab coats on Capitol Hill. 

Steve Ubl, president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Researcher and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA), plans to deploy top scientists and researchers to meet with lawmakers in a potentially make-or-break year for the industry. 

The offices on Capitol Hill will also get facetime with the patients who have benefited from some of the newest, and most costly, drugs. 
It’s a marked shift for a drug lobby that Ubl acknowledged has “focused on defense” since it became a political target during the early days of the Affordable Care Act, and even more recently, during the fierce debate over drug pricing.

“I think it's fair to say this represents a bit of a pivot for the organization. We’re going to develop a proactive policy agenda, and we’re going to drive it,” Ubl said in an interview in his downtown D.C. office this month. 

“The industry has had a bit of a bunker mentality,” added Ubl, PhRMA’s first new CEO in six years. 

“Our industry has become an easy political target,” Kenneth Frazier, the president and CEO of Merck & Co., who is a member of PhRMA’s board, said this month. “We’ve seen politicians from both sides of the aisle singling out our industry as the source of the problem.”

As drug pricing heats up on both sides of the 2016 campaign, PhRMA has been hitting the airwaves to offer a brighter side of the business. In February, the company announced a multi-million ad campaign called “From Hopes to Cures” in D.C., aimed at lawmakers. 

Via Pharma Guy