Health Advocacy Organizations and the Pharmaceutical Industry: An Analysis of Disclosure Practices -- American Journal of Public Health selected articles

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AJPH First Look, published online ahead of print Jan 13, 2011

April 2011, Vol 101, No. 4 | American Journal of Public Health 602-609
© 2011 American Public Health Association
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2010.300027

GOVERNMENT, POLITICS, AND LAW

Health Advocacy Organizations and the Pharmaceutical Industry: An Analysis of Disclosure Practices
Sheila M. Rothman, PhD, Victoria H. Raveis, PhD, Anne Friedman, BA and David J. Rothman, PhD
Sheila M. Rothman is with the Division of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, and the Center for the Study of Society and Medicine,

College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. Victoria H. Raveis is with the Psychosocial Unit on Health, Ageing, and Community, New York University College of Dentistry, New

York. At the time of the study Anne Friedman was with the Center on Medicine as a Profession, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. David J. Rothman is with the College
of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University.
Correspondence: Correspondence should be sent to Sheila M. Rothman, Center for the Study of Society and Medicine, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University,

630 West 168th St, PH 15-25, New York, NY 10032 (e-mail: smr4@columbia.edu). Reprints can be ordered at http://www.ajph.org by clicking the "Reprints/Eprints" button.
Health advocacy organizations (HAOs) are influential stakeholders in health policy. Although their advocacy tends to closely correspond with the pharmaceutical industry's
marketing aims, the financial relationships between HAOs and the pharmaceutical industry have rarely been analyzed.
We used Eli Lilly and Company's grant registry to examine its grant-giving policies. We also examined HAO Web sites to determine their grant-disclosure patterns.

Only 25% of HAOs that received Lilly grants acknowledged Lilly's contributions on their Web sites, and only 10% acknowledged Lilly as a grant event sponsor.

No HAO disclosed the exact amount of a Lilly grant.
As highly trusted organizations, HAOs should disclose all corporate grants, including the purpose and the amount. Absent this disclosure, legislators, regulators,

and the public cannot evaluate possible conflicts of interest or biases in HAO advocacy.




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