'Study sparks call for funding reforms to protect patient groups from pharma influence'

 Academics are calling for governments to act to “safeguard the independence” of patient groups that receive funding from biopharma companies. The call reflects a belief “drug companies shape and mold patient organizations over time” through financial support.

Piotr Ozieranski, a researcher at the University of Bath, made the claim that drugmakers shape patient organizations in a press release to promote a paper he co-authored. The paper, which was published in the International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services, looks at the funding of Polish patient groups from 2012 to 2020. Ozieranski used the research to make a call for change.

“Companies play the long game—they don’t want anything obvious in return for their funding, but over time, they build closer ties with the patient organizations. As their relationship deepens, the two bodies run shared projects and conferences, and may provide joint testimony to scientific advisory bodies,” the researcher said in a statement.

Ozieranski and his collaborators proposed three actions to mitigate the claimed risk of undue influence. The researchers want Poland and other countries to create a central funding pool for patient groups. All companies would pay into the pool, “so patient organizations avoid becoming overly reliant on one, or a small number of, donor corporations to continue their work.”

The researchers also proposed the creation of mechanisms for inviting taxpayers to allocate 1.5% of their income tax to a specific patient organization. Patient groups would need to register as “public benefit organizations” to access the money, creating requirements for the transparent reporting of funding. The third recommendation is for groups to stop receiving funding from drugmakers whenever possible.

Ozieranski made the calls for change after completing an analysis that showed an increase in biopharma funding for Polish patient organizations. Because the number of companies with disclosure reports rose from 2012 to 2020, the researchers focused on 10 drugmakers, including Merck & Co., Pfizer and Roche, that reported payments in all years to show trends over time.

The annual value of payments by the 10 big biopharma companies roughly doubled over the analyzed period, although the big jump happened from 2012 to 2015. Funding provided by the 10 companies peaked in 2015. Funding from all pharma companies continued to rise after 2015, peaking in the final year of the analysis, but the trend may reflect more widespread reporting of payments.

https://www.fiercepharma.com/marketing/study-sparks-call-funding-reforms-protect-patient-groups-pharma-influence