At least six organizations that claim to champion patient rights have deep financial and operational ties to Big Pharma and work to advance corporate profits. These industry front groups routinely lobby in line with the pharmaceutical industry’s priorities, challenge drug price negotiations in court briefings, and promote the industry’s interests in public statements, according to new research.
The findings are the latest example of how pharmaceutical companies are leveraging the legitimacy of patient advocacy groups to further their corporate aims, which are often in direct conflict with the patient rights such groups claim to support.
A report published this Monday by Patients for Affordable Drugs, a national patient advocacy nonprofit, reveals that six organizations ostensibly dedicated to expanding health research and health care access in fact receive significant funding from the pharmaceutical industry, have leadership with ongoing pharmaceutical industry connections, or both.
“There’s clearly a revolving door between many of these groups and between pharma,” said Merith Basey, executive director of Patients for Affordable Drugs, which does not receive funding from pharmaceutical groups. The groups “tend to then represent the interests of pharma and their shareholders and not of patients,” more than half of whom are struggling to afford their prescription medications.
In effect, these organizations function as industry front groups, echoing the positions of their funders while posing as credible advocacy groups. This includes attacking the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act through public comments, court filings, and lobbying. The law, which was strongly opposed by the pharmaceutical industry, granted Medicare the authority to negotiate lower prices for a list of expensive drugs.
So far this year, the drug industry’s trade association, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), has spent nearly…
Auteur: Helen Santoro
