In 2007, Eli Lilly and Company gave the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) $450,000 toward its Campaign for the Mind of America, which, if successful, could greatly expand the market for Lilly’s newest and most expensive psychiatric drugs.
Potential conflict of interest in the funding of health advocacy organizations (HAOs) by pharmaceutical companies is hard to suss out, because those relationships are mostly not made public. After doing a systematic analysis of the disclosure practices of HAOs, “I was very surprised at the large number of organizations that did not disclose” industry contributions, says Sheila Rothman, a professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
Although there is no general legal requirement for companies to do so, as part of settlement agreements with the US ... Read more
