Marching to different drummers

PatientView’s survey, based on annual reports and other relevant literature from nine Canadian health campaigning groups in 2001-2003, found that the Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Diabetes Association, the Canadian Mental Health Association, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada and the Parkinson’s Society of Canada all cited pharmaceutical com [...] Funding sources obviously have the potential to create conflicts of interest, especially when the parties providing the money have a direct interest in the outcome of the group’s advocacy, as drug companies often do. [...] In a 2001 Globe and Mail article,27 Denis Morrice of the Arthritis Society of Canada, Barry Stein of the Colorectal Cancer Society of Canada, and Durhane Wong Reiger of the Anemia Institute for Research and Education vigorously defended their decisions to accept funding from the drug industry. [...] A number of groups which do not accept pharmaceutical company funding, including Women and Health Protection, PharmaWatch, the Consumers’ Association of Canada and the Canadian Health Coalition, argue that the push to speedy drug approvals detracts attention and resources from the careful drug review and post-market surveillance needed to assure drug safety. [...] In the early 1990s, due to government cutbacks in Canada and restrictions in the US, the HPFB and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) instituted user fees payable by industry.