Medical royal colleges do not always disclose publicly the millions of pounds they receive from drug and medical device companies. Critics say voluntary industry transparency initiatives don’t go far enough. Hristio Boytchev reports
Royal colleges in the UK have received more than £9m in marketing payments from drug and medical devices companies since 2015, an analysis by The BMJ has found. The Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of General Practitioners were the biggest recipients of industry money, the investigation found.
The BMJ asked the colleges to disclose all payments from industry, campaign groups, or patient associations, including the specific amount received from each donor, but they all refused to do so. The colleges are not obliged to disclose these payments; they are not included in their annual reports and are only available through voluntary industry transparency initiatives, which experts say have severe limitations.
Industry payments have become controversial in recent years, even leading to one drug company being suspended from its representative association.5 Some colleges have already cut ties: since 2012 the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland has refused to take any sponsorship from drug companies, noting that research “overwhelmingly” shows that clinicians are influenced by industry marketing and that this affects prescribing.1
“I can see no justification for anything but full and mandatory disclosure,” says Emma Hardy, Labour member of parliament and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Surgical Mesh Implants. “Medicine is literally a matter of life and death, and patients must be confident they are receiving the best treatment available for the right reasons.”
“Even if we are told the information is independent, funding skews the types of education or information that gets made,” says Margaret McCartney, a general practitioner and former Royal College of General Practitioners trustee and council …