Data from: Association between commercial funding of Canadian patient groups and their views about funding of medicines: an observational study

Background: Patient groups represent the interest of their members when it
comes to drug funding. Many patient groups receive grants from
pharmaceutical companies that make products being considered for funding.
This research examines whether there is an association between the
positions that Canadian groups take about the products and conflicts of
interest with the companies. Methods: The Common Drug Review (CDR) and
panCanadian Oncology Drug Review (pCODR) make recommendations to Canadian
provincial and federal drug plans about funding particular
drug-indications. Both utilize input from patient groups in making their
recommendations. Patient group submissions are available from both
organizations and these submissions contain statements about conflicts of
interest. Views of the patient groups, with and without a conflict with
the company making the drug under consideration and without any conflicts
at all, were assessed and then compared with the recommendations from CDR
and pCODR. Results: There was a total of 222 reports for drug-indications.
There were 372 submissions from 93 different patient groups. Groups
declared a total of 1896 conflicts with drug companies in 324 (87.1%)
individual submissions. There were 268 submissions where groups declared a
conflict with the company making the product or said they had no conflict.
Irrespective of whether there was a conflict, the views of patient groups
about the drug-indications under consideration were the same. There was no
statistically significant difference between views of patient groups and
the recommendations from CDR and/or pCODR. Conclusions: The large majority
of patient groups making submissions about funding of particular
drug-indications had conflicts with the companies making the products and
their views about the products were almost always positive. This
association between funding and views needs to be further investigated to
determine if a true cause and effect exists.