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Photo of Shai Mulinari. Private photo.

Shai Mulinari

Associate Professor | Senior Lecturer

Photo of Shai Mulinari. Private photo.

A “patient-industry complex”? Investigating the financial dependency of UK patient organisations on drug company funding

Author

  • Piotr Ozieranski
  • Pitter Janos
  • Emily Rickard
  • Shai Mulinari
  • Marcell Csanadi

Summary, in English

We examined the minimum extent of dependency of UK patient organisations on pharmaceutical industry funding using drug company disclosure reports and patient organisation financial accounts from 2012 to 2016. We used linear regression to explain the overall share of industry funding (‘general dependency’) and top donor funding (‘company-specific dependency’) in organisations’ income. Predictors included patient organisations’ goal; having members and volunteers; geographical scope of activity; headquarter location; expenditure/income ratio; and disease area. The prevalent low levels of general dependency (IQR, 0.1%–6.0%) and company-specific dependency (IQR, 0.1%–4.3%) made a widespread capture of patient organisations unlikely, though only if one excludes the possibility of significant payment under-reporting. However, organisations with considerably higher dependency than others might be more prone to co-optation by industry. Of the 398 organisations, 18 (4.5%) and 8 (2.0%) had general and company-specific financial dependency over 50%, respectively. However, the shares of outliers exceeding the third quartile plus 1.5 times IQR were 51 (12.8%) and 56 (14.1%) for each dependency type. Certain characteristics including activity profile (advocacy) or indicating limited access to resources (remote location) made organisations vulnerable to developing financial dependency. Future research should examine both financial and non-financial links between the two sides and their impact on patient organisations’ activity.

Department/s

  • Sociology

Publishing year

2022-01-23

Language

English

Pages

188-210

Publication/Series

Sociology of Health & Illness

Volume

44

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)

Keywords

  • conflicts of interest
  • financial dependency
  • patient organisations
  • pharmaceutical industry
  • transparency

Status

Published

Project

  • What can be learnt from the new pharmaceutical industry payment disclosures? A network and policy analysis of ties between companies and health professionals and organisations
  • Following the money: cross-national study of pharmaceutical industry payments to medical associations and patient organisations

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1467-9566