BMJ  2007;334:1020 (19 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39212.696238.3A

Letters

Drug money for patient groups

The illusion of invulnerability

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Kent claims that patient groups are not naive, value their independence fiercely, and are quite capable of spotting the strings that may be attached to funding.¹ Many doctors have similar overconfident beliefs about invulnerability to being misled by drug companies.² This illusion of invulnerability actually increases vulnerability.³

In the 1840s doctors did not understand the risk of invisible microbes so were offended by the suggestion they should wash their hands. We are now going through a similar paradigm shift towards understanding the risk of invisible unintended bias from exposure to industry influence techniques. These techniques include manipulation of reciprocal obligation, which can occur without our awareness.⁴ Patient groups tend to reciprocate by lobbying governments to pay for overpriced drugs rather than lobbying the companies to reduce their prices.

Funding for patient groups could be increased and the alleged problems with government funding reduced by abolishing patents to allow price competition . . . [Full text of this article]

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Should patient groups accept money from drug companies? Yes

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