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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/12/1071125652945.html

Drug firms fund disease awareness

By and Liz Minchin

December 13, 2003

Pharmaceutical companies are pouring millions of dollars into patient

advocacy groups and medical organisations to help expand markets for their

products.

They are also using sponsorships and educational grants to fund

disease-awareness campaigns that urge people to see their doctors.

Many groups have become largely or totally reliant on pharmaceutical

industry money, prompting concerns they are open to pressure from companies

pushing their products.

An investigation by The Age newspaper has found: An awareness campaign run

by the National Asthma Council was spearheaded by a cartoon dragon that was

the registered trademark of a drug company used to promote one individual

asthma medication.

A drug company used a public relations firm to set up an expert medical

board to persuade people they needed hepatitis A and B vaccinations. The

company was not interested in raising awareness about hepatitis C because it

did not sell a vaccine for the disease.

Treatment guidelines issued by Australian doctors for some diseases are

being modelled by those developed by international groups entirely funded by

pharmaceutical companies selling drugs for those same diseases.

Groups funded by pharmaceutical companies are helping lobby the federal

Government to have new drugs added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

The health policy officer with the Australian Consumers' Association, Martyn

Goddard, who is a former member of the federal Pharmaceutical Benefits

Advisory Committee, said pharmaceutical companies had far too much influence

over many consumer groups.

" Drug companies find it very easy to recruit consumer groups and they do it

very cheaply, " he said.

" There's almost no such thing as clean money for most consumer

organisations. "

The total amount of money flowing into patient groups and medical bodies in

Australia is unclear. The most recent figure available from the industry

body Medicines Australia shows that drug companies spent between $20 million

and $25 million on philanthropic causes in 1999, which mostly covered

payments to such groups.

One medical specialist involved in an organisation totally sponsored by drug

companies described the situation as like " dancing with the devil " .

There are no independent regulations covering drug company sponsorship deals

and grants with patient groups in Australia.

Voluntary guidelines developed by Medicines Australia are now being

independently reviewed by Swinburne University. The review is being funded

by Medicines Australia and individual drug companies.

A South Australian general practitioner, Dr Mansfield, who runs the

internationally renowned Healthy Skepticism website, which exposes

pharmaceutical marketing techniques, said the hijacking of patient groups

had become a huge problem.

" To be an advocate for people with those conditions, those organisations

ought to be free to criticise the drug companies - just as they ought to be

free to criticise doctors if we are not doing our jobs properly, " he said.

Copyright © 2003. The Sydney Morning Herald.

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