Medical education companies got $170m in grants from 14 drug firms in 2010, study finds

It is common for companies that provide medical education to get substantial funding from drug and device manufacturers, and many companies share the data they obtain from doctors with third parties, a US study has found.

The research, published in JAMA, found that 18 medical communication companies received about $100m (£60m; €73m) from 13 US drug companies and one device manufacturer that released data on websites in 2010.1

The researchers, from Columbia University in New York, were able to examine how much money the drug and device companies spent on grants to medical communications companies after the companies posted grant registries on their websites. Some did this because they had to as …