Big Pharma donates £ 57m to British patient charities that could influence NHS drug policy makers, report says Big Pharma

Pharmaceutical companies have paid £ 57 million to British patient groups who are researching and lobbying for new treatments under specific conditions – in many cases the same drugs are marketed by their donors.

A survey conducted by researchers at the University of Bath on donations from major pharmaceutical companies and other organizations in the sector revealed that the number of donations between 2014 and 2016 had risen by a third and that his value had more than doubled.

Nearly half of the funding was mainly for research, campaigning or awareness-raising activities. British Medical Journal (BMJ) Survey says.

They said that a lack of transparency on how funding is reported meant that this type of funding could significantly shift the attention of major charities and policy makers to areas with commercial benefits.

"Without necessarily determining the content of funded activities, companies could shape the profile of patient organizations by investing heavily in their external activities," said Dr. Piotr Ozieranski, lead author, and his colleagues.

“This could then influence the public’s and policy makers’ perceptions, consistent with other industry marketing practices.”

The report shows that donations were largest in areas such as diabetes, blood and bad cancers, and HIV and major charities like Alzheimer’s Research UK and Cancer Research UK among the beneficiaries of research funding.

“Importantly, the biggest donors in these condition areas have recently launched several high-priced drugs,” the authors added.

New drugs may only provide incremental improvements on existing treatments but command a far higher price tag when marketed.

The NHS has some of the most robust systems in the world for evaluating new drug cost effectiveness, but the report warns patient groups often sit on advisory panels as part of this process.

“Notably, patient organisations contributing to appraisals by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have widespread, and often not entirely transparent, financial relationships with drug companies,” the authors said.

Since 2012 European and British pharmacy industry bodies have required their members to publish payments to patient and health professional groups, but these reports are often irregular and hard to find.

The Bath University researchers badysed 220 disclosure reports in the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) database between 2012 and 2016.

While 66 companies published at least one report, only a third of these published a report every year.

The report found 4,572 payments to patient groups, totalling £57.3m over the five years. While this only represented one sixth of the payments given to health professionals and their representatives, the value of payments has increased by 40 per cent over this period.

“As with payments to healthcare professionals, the largest donors were “big pharma” companies,” the authors said.

This includes Pfizer, who gave at least £5m to Cancer Research UK and Breast Cancer Now, and Takeda, who gave £6m to Myeloma UK in 2016.

“It is normal for companies to work with patient groups and charities to help advance our understanding of disease, but this is done under our strict code of practice which includes a lot of safeguards,” Jill Pearcy, director of code engagement at the ABPI, said.

“We completely support transparency. Companies involvement with patient groups has been made public for more than a decade and today, the details of all payments and relationships with patient organisations must be publicly available on company websites.”