Patient Organizations' Funding from Pharmaceutical Companies: Is Disclosure Clear, Complete and Accessible to the Public? An Italian Survey
Patient Organizations' Funding from Pharmaceutical Companies: Is Disclosure Clear, Complete and Accessible to the Public? An Italian Survey
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0034974
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发表时间：
2012-05-09
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Garattini, Silvio
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Colombo, Cinzia;Mosconi, Paola;Garattini, Silvio
背景：许多患者和消费者组织接受制药行业的资助，以支持他们的活动。随着制药公司和患者团体的关系越来越密切，信息披露对于透明度变得至关重要，而互联网可能是使公众获得赞助信息的有用手段。这项调查的目的是评估一个大集团的意大利患者和消费者群体和一组制药公司的透明度，专注于他们的websites.Methodology/Principal Findings：患者和消费者群体是从那些声称是由一组制药公司在他们的网站上赞助。使用两种表格对网站进行了检查，其中包括主要的透明度指标（提供资金的制药公司名称、资金数额）和次要的透明度指标（披露赞助商的部分、赞助商的更新）。主要指标由两名评审员独立应用于患者和消费者团体的网站。通过讨论解决了不一致。一百五十七意大利患者和消费者团体和17家制药公司被认为是。13家制药公司（76%）在其意大利网站上至少列出了一个资助的团体。其中，四份（31%）说明了赞助的活动，两份（15%）说明了资金数额。在157个患者和消费者群体中，46个（29%）至少有一家制药公司提供资金。三个国家（6%）报告了资金数额，25个国家（54%）报告了资助的活动，没有一个国家报告了来自制药公司的收入比例。在命名制药公司赞助商的团体中，有15个（33%）在专门的部分中宣布，有5个（11%）在主页上，其他人在财务报告或其他部分。结论/意义：意大利患者和消费者团体的网站上很少披露资金。需要提高透明度。意大利制药公司的网站经常披露获得资金的患者和消费者群体，但信息往往不完整。
Background: Many patients' and consumers' organizations accept drug industry funding to support their activities. As drug companies and patient groups move closer, disclosure become essential for transparency, and the internet could be a useful means of making sponsorship information accessible to the public. This survey aims to assess the transparency of a large group of Italian patient and consumer groups and a group of pharmaceutical companies, focusing on their websites.Methodology/Principal Findings: Patient and consumer groups were selected from those stated to be sponsored by a group of pharmaceutical companies on their websites. The websites were examined using two forms with principal (name of drug companies providing funds, amount of funding) and secondary indicators of transparency (section where sponsors are disclosed, update of sponsorship). Principal indicators were applied independently by two reviewers to the patient and consumer groups' websites. Discordances were solved by discussion. One hundred fifty-seven Italian patient and consumer groups and 17 drug companies were considered. Thirteen drug companies (76%) named at least one group funded, on their Italian websites. Of these, four (31%) indicated the activities sponsored and two (15%) the amount of funding. Of the 157 patient and consumer groups, 46 (29%) named at least one pharmaceutical company as providing funds. Three (6%) reported the amount of funding, 25 (54%) the activities funded, none the proportion of income derived from drug companies. Among the groups naming pharmaceutical company sponsors, 15 (33%) declared them in a dedicated section, five (11%) on the home page, the others in the financial report or other sections.Conclusions/Significance: Disclosure of funds is scarce on Italian patient and consumer groups' websites. The levels of transparency need to be improved. Disclosure of patient and consumer groups provided with funds is frequent on Italian pharmaceutical companies' websites, but information are often not complete.