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From SourceWatch

Patient Groups are organisations which claim to represent the interests of patients suffering various illnesses. Many are funded, and in some case staffed, by the pharmaceutical companies which sell treatments for the relevant illnesses.

"The American Diabetes Association, a leading patient health group, privately enlisted an Eli Lilly & Co. executive to chart its growth strategy and write its slogan. The National Alliance on Mental Illness, an outspoken patient advocate, lobbies for treatment programs that also benefit its drug-company donors. ... Although patients seldom know it, many patient groups and drug companies maintain close, multimillion-dollar relationships while disclosing limited or no details about the ties," reports Thomas Ginsberg. [1]

In some cases, companies have "loaned" the services of their executives to advise or even lead patient groups. Ginsberg's investigation found that "the groups rarely disclose such ties when commenting or lobbying about donors' drugs. They also tend to be slower to publicize treatment problems than breakthroughs. And few openly questioned drug prices." [2]

SourceWatch Resources

• Health Care
• Midwest Heart Foundation
• Doctor Run Charities
• Patient Groups/Australia
• Patient Groups/Europe
• Patient Groups/International
• Patient Groups/UK
• Patient Groups/US
• Patient Groups/Canada

External links

• Dr Orla O'Donovan, "Time to weed out the astroturf from the grassroots? Exploring the implications of pharmaceutical industry funding of patients’ advocacy organisations", Paper presented at Concepts of the Third Sector: The European Debate , ISTR/EMES Conference, Paris , 27-29 April 2005.
• Dr Orla O'Donovan, "Current Research", Accessed July 2006.
• Thomas Ginsberg, "Donations tie drug firms and nonprofits: Many patient groups reveal few, if any, details on relationships with pharmaceutical donors", Philadelphia Inquirer, May 28, 2006.
• Reed Abelson, "Charities Tied to Doctors Get Drug Industry Gifts", New York Times, June 28, 2006.
• Jo Revill, "Cancer drug firm's PR trip sparks a row: MPs and charity officials defend paid-for visit to see 'gold standard' treatment at French hospital", The Observer, July 2, 2006.
• Douglas Ball, Klara Tisocki and Andrew Herxheimer, "Advertising and disclosure of funding on patient organisation websites: a cross-sectional survey", BMC Public Health, August 3, 2006.
• David Miller 'This campaign brought to you by...' Spinwatch, 29 October 2006.