Healthy Skepticism Library item: 14177
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: news
Goldstein J.
GlaxoSmithKline to Disclose Grants to Hospitals, Patient Groups
The Wall Street Journal 2008 Aug 21
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/08/21/glaxosmithkline-to-disclose-grants-to-hospitals-patient-groups/
Full text:
Another big drug maker is going to start reporting how much grant money it doles out.
GlaxoSmithKline said today that starting next year it will issue quarterly reports on its grants to “various organizations including hospitals, teaching institutions, managed care organizations, professional associations, patient advocacy groups, and continuing medical education companies.”
These sorts of grants add up. Eli Lilly, among the first to start reporting this stuff, said last spring that it had given out nearly $12 million in the first three months of 2007 to groups both large (the American Medical Association) and small (the Central Indiana Association of Pharmacists).
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has been leaning on drug and device companies to be more open about who they give money to.
Earlier this year, Boston Scientific told Grassley it’s developing a system that will disclose multiple categories of payments, including some to physicians; Medtronic and AstraZeneca both said they planned to start posting payments for professional meetings and patient groups; Merck said it’s working on a plan; and Amgen and Abbott said they’re working to figure out how to compile and display their grants. For more, see this AP story from April.
