Pharmaceutical company responses to leaked trade body strategy
23rd July 2013
We have asked all member pharmaceutical companies to confirm whether or not they support the strategy of trade bodies EFPIA and PhRMA “mobilising patient groups” in the debate about clinical trial transparency, as part of their “advocacy” strategy, as reported in the Guardian. These are the response from companies so far:
GSK said: “This is not something we are doing. One of the reasons we’re involved in this is we want more companies to move towards greater transparency. I don’t think it’s for us to be mobilising patient groups to campaign on a negative level.”
A Roche spokesperson said the company consulted patient groups to understand their concerns about clinical trials, but “to our knowledge Roche has not been involved in any EFPIA’s potential activity in mobilising patient groups to express concern about the risk to public health by non-scientific re-use of data”.
A Lilly spokesman said: “Lilly is committed to working with Europe-based patient advocacy organisations for the benefit of patients in a way that is true to the EFPIA code of practice and Lilly’s integrity in business policy.”
Update:
Sanofi told us: “I would rather say that Sanofi believes in discussing with patient groups to better understand what their concerns and needs are, and to ensure they are aware of the commitment of the biopharmaceutical industry to share data with researchers and patients.”
Boehringer Ingelheim: “I can confirm that there is no intended strategy of Boehringer Ingelheim to mobilize patient groups in the discussion on clinical trial transparency, in particular, into lobbying against the EU plans on clinical trial data publication.”
Biogen Idec: “Biogen Idec is firmly committed to enhancing the public health through responsible reporting and publication of clinical research and safety information. We also believe that patient organisations should participate in the discussion about how data from clinical trials is reported.”