From the article published in the BMJ (BMJ 2003;326:1208-10;) some examples of non-transparent information or of initiatives carried out by associations under pressure from pharmaceutical industries are taken.
The portal of the Lymphoma association, a charity linked to Roche, refers to two sites, one reserved for professionals and the other aimed at the public. The former is password-protected and claims to have received grants from Roche, whose site is referred to via a link to the sponsor; the other is freely accessible and does not mention Roche anywhere on the site, depriving users of substantial information.
In 1999, the pharmaceutical company Biogen promoted the Action for Access campaign to push the NHS, the British National Health Service, to pass beta interferon, a very expensive drug of its production, to multiple sclerosis patients. The Medicines Control Agency, which monitors compliance with the standards set for medicines placed on the market in the UK, has stopped the campaign.
The National Alliance for the mentally ill, an organization of people with mental disorders and their families, between 1996 and 1999 received 12 million dollars from 18 pharmaceutical companies headed by the multinational Eli Lilly. The organization has promoted the nationwide dissemination of the PACT program (Program of assertive community treatment), which provides for the shipment of psychotropic drugs to the home supported by a court order (VEDI) IAPO (Intarnational Alliance of Patients' Organization) and GAMIAN Europe (Global Alliance of Mental Illness Advocacy), two international patient federations founded and financed by pharmaceutical industries, are preferred by the European Commission as interlocutors over other patient associations or organisations, because they would be representative of a greater number of patients than to the others. Neither federation discloses the sources of its funding and, with other industry-funded organisations, they have managed to submit to the European Commission a proposal to allow industry to 'inform' directly to the public on prescription medicines (in USA already happens).
In 2000 the president of the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry, which brings together the British pharmaceutical industries, described in a private conversation, as shown by the article that appeared in the BMJ, their project "to employ troops in the territory in the form of organizations of patients, opinion leaders and compliant healthcare professionals… who lead the debate on the rights of an informed patient”.
Paola Mosconi, Cinzia Colombo
from www.partecipasalute.it
The portal of the Lymphoma association, a charity linked to Roche, refers to two sites, one reserved for professionals and the other aimed at the public. The former is password-protected and claims to have received grants from Roche, whose site is referred to via a link to the sponsor; the other is freely accessible and does not mention Roche anywhere on the site, depriving users of substantial information.
In 1999, the pharmaceutical company Biogen promoted the Action for Access campaign to push the NHS, the British National Health Service, to pass beta interferon, a very expensive drug of its production, to multiple sclerosis patients. The Medicines Control Agency, which monitors compliance with the standards set for medicines placed on the market in the UK, has stopped the campaign.
The National Alliance for the mentally ill, an organization of people with mental disorders and their families, between 1996 and 1999 received 12 million dollars from 18 pharmaceutical companies headed by the multinational Eli Lilly. The organization has promoted the nationwide dissemination of the PACT program (Program of assertive community treatment), which provides for the shipment of psychotropic drugs to the home supported by a court order (VEDI) IAPO (Intarnational Alliance of Patients' Organization) and GAMIAN Europe (Global Alliance of Mental Illness Advocacy), two international patient federations founded and financed by pharmaceutical industries, are preferred by the European Commission as interlocutors over other patient associations or organisations, because they would be representative of a greater number of patients than to the others. Neither federation discloses the sources of its funding and, with other industry-funded organisations, they have managed to submit to the European Commission a proposal to allow industry to 'inform' directly to the public on prescription medicines (in USA already happens).
In 2000 the president of the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry, which brings together the British pharmaceutical industries, described in a private conversation, as shown by the article that appeared in the BMJ, their project "to employ troops in the territory in the form of organizations of patients, opinion leaders and compliant healthcare professionals… who lead the debate on the rights of an informed patient”.
Paola Mosconi, Cinzia Colombo
from www.partecipasalute.it
