In the fourth part of our investigation into the Miracle Biologic Lecanemab, we disclosed that the US based Alzheimer’s Association received over $750,000 from Eisai in 2023.
Writing in the Guardian, Margaret McCartney highlighted that doctors seldom truly comprehend the extent of industry influence.
‘Data published by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (APBI) shows that almost £42m was paid to UK health professionals in 2023 – a mix of mainly consultancy, travel and conference fees. Pharma clearly thinks a massive spend is a good idea.’
The ABPI requires the industry to publish annual lists of payments to patient organisations that you can search.
In 2023, Eisai Ltd. paid out £4.47 million in the UK, of which just over £243,000 was paid to 157 healthcare professionals. Unlike McCartney, we believe these doctors fully comprehend their actions; they simply choose not to acknowledge them. What's more critical, however, is that Eisai knows they are purchasing influence and opinions.
McCartney also highlights that in 2020 alone, nearly £23m was paid to UK patient groups from pharmaceutical industry sources, mostly where they were "aligned with their portfolio or pipeline."
Eisai Ltd. provides financial support to several 'key patient organizations and projects,' all evaluated on an individual basis. In 2023, Eisai funded 50 organisations, including the Association of British Neurologists (£30,000 in 2023), the Association of Cancer Physicians (£3,000), and several NHS organisations. In 2022 Eisai granted 176,861 Pounds to Alzheimer’s Research UK as a contribution to the Dementia Consortium Project.
Remember that “David Thomas, the head of policy at Alzheimer’s Research, said: “The failure to include the cost of caring in the model is fundamentally unjust. The way these assessments are being carried out is just not fit for purpose”. He was criticising NICE doing its job.
as our reader Werner Wheelock quickly picked up.
The new Health Secretary aims for the UK to become a stronger destination for medicine manufacturers. For the key opinion leaders, the future is filled with opportunities as the industry's influence on your health grows.
So the answer is no: UK is well looked after with payments to key opinion leaders “aligned” to what pharma wants to flog.
This post was written by two old geezers who would not recognise 176,861 banknotes if they tripped over them.
I'm sitting back and trying to understand the bigger picture here.
Fifty years ago computers began to appear to make it possible for clinicians to quickly search for all the good quality evidence avaliable to answer a clinically significant question.
Techniques were then developed to combine the results of these studies to reduce the risk that a clinically significant result was a chance finding.
Achedemics took the opportunity to structure these findings into clinical guidelines which over time became clinical directions. Pharma realised the power such developments gave them to maximise their profits by influencing these documents.
It turns out that much of modern medicine provides much less benefit than many believe. Antidepressants barley work, antipsychotics risk serious metabolic damage, some mood stabilisers are very deleterious to the unbourne, statins lack life prolonging properties in the healthy, we can not prevent Alzheimers progression, routine health checks do not reduce mortality.
The result is that much of our health spending is waisted. Computers sometimes have unintended consequences.