Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8956

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Publication type: news

Stafford A, Murphy K.
Drug firm paid for MP's forum, book
The Age (Melbourne) 2007 Jan 17
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/01/16/1168709752856.html#

Full text:

A MULTINATIONAL pharmaceutical company specialising in drugs for diabetes paid for an assistant to help a federal politician organise a forum on obesity.

Novo Nordisk gave Tasmanian Liberal senator Guy Barnett $40,000 towards his annual Healthy Lifestyle Forum last year, the senator said after revealing the sponsorship in the pecuniary interest register.

He used the money to pay for air fares, hiring and catering for the forum as well as hiring a part-time assistant from March to October.

The company also helped pay for a book on obesity edited by Senator Barnett, a member of the Government’s health policy committee and a long-time campaigner on obesity.

Novo Nordisk makes the long-acting insulin drug Levemir, which the Government last year agreed to subsidise for people with type 1 diabetes after a recommendation by the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee.

University of Newcastle pharmacologist David Henry said while there was no direct link between Novo Nordisk’s commercial interests and the forum – it does not sell obesity drugs – it was a bad idea “for parliamentarians to be going to the industry looking for funding … no matter how well-intentioned”.

If there was a belief that things such as the forum were important, “then the Government itself should commit the funds”.

To patient groups and politicians, money from a pharmaceutical company “may seem like a lifeline, but in taking the money they lose their objectivity and their independence, which is one of their most powerful assets”, Professor Henry said.

And any subsequent lobbying for particular policies could be seen in the light of the support they got from the drug company.

“They must understand that they may weaken what it is they are trying to achieve, because these companies very definitely have a reason for doing (what they do). They want to obtain markets for their drugs,” he said.

But Senator Barnett and Novo Nordisk denied any conflict of interest in the company’s support of the forum.

“I’ll work with anyone and everyone who has the same objective of combating obesity and … helping people with diabetes,” said Senator Barnett, who has type 1 diabetes.

“I don’t see any conflict of interest at all.

“I support full disclosure and at every forum (their sponsorship) has been noted and advised … it’s fully transparent and that’s why I wrote the letter (to the pecuniary interest register).”

The forums had also been supported by Diabetes Australia and a range of other organisations, he said.

Novo Nordisk had sponsored the forum for the past two years – there have been seven forums since 2002 – and paid $5000 towards the conference in 2005, he said.

Novo Nordisk communications manager Tina Wall said the senator had approached the company about supporting the forum and it had accepted because it fitted with “our corporate mission to defeat diabetes”.

There was no product advertising at the forum, but the company logo was on a banner and on carry bags, she said.

She denied there was a conflict because the forum was “about obesity, which we don’t sell any drugs for”.

Nordisk was doing some “early research … in that area, but we have not got to the product stage yet”.