Disease Charities Strike Partnerships With Drug Firms
February 10, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Disease-fighting nonprofit groups are increasingly investing in for-profit pharmaceutical companies in an effort to develop new treatments, according to The Wall Street Journal.
About a dozen such charities, including the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, are spending money raised from donors on efforts to bring new drugs to market, often in exchange for financial stakes in the resulting products. Many cite the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s 10-year relationship with Vertex Pharmaceuticals as an inspiration for the strategy.
Aaron Kesselheim, a doctor at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a health-policy analyst, said the practice creates a “potential minefield” of conflicts for disease charities, which do patient advocacy and make recommendations to doctors and drug regulators.
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