Today's good idea for the business comes from a group called Essential Action (lousy name, BTW). This coalition of pressure groups wants all pharma companies to disclose all the donations they make -- in the form of educational grants, etc -- to various charities, patient groups, and foundations.
Why?
Because, as everyone knows, these patient groups are allowed to say things about drugs that companies themselves are not. And patients often rely on these groups for objective information, not knowing that some of them have taken millions of dollars from drug companies with an interest in patients' prescriptions.
It's all about transparency. The more the better. No one is saying drug companies can't donate money to causes they're interested in. It's just that they shouldn't be able to hide those donations when their sock puppets are chatting about the amazing off-label uses of gabapentinvirogleevatronical-dopoid-3, or whatever.
Credit where it's due: Lilly already does this.
So who are these groups that have signed on to this coalition?
Some of them are the usual big-mouth suspects: the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the American Medical
Student Association, etc.
And then there are some unusual ones: the Albanian Consumers Association, The Finnish
Consumers' Association, New View Campaign on Women's Sexual Problems, the Togolese
Consumer Association.
The heads of the largest pharma companies will all be getting a letter urging
them to follow Lilly's lead. Who knows, maybe on this issues the Christian
Health Association of Malawi has got it right ...
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