Drug Charity Loses Critical Government Stamp Of Approval For Its Dealings With Pharmaceutical Industry
Caring Voice Coalition, a nonprofit that takes money from drug companies to help patients pay for medicines, may close since an Office of Inspector General citation finds that the organization improperly allowed donors to influence operations and the use of patient data.
Bloomberg:
Drug Charity May Shutter After U.S. Faults Pharma Influence
A medical charity that received hundreds of millions of dollars from pharmaceutical companies lost a crucial stamp of approval from the U.S. government, after allowing its donors improper influence over how the nonprofit was run. For the last decade, Caring Voice Coalition has been one of the biggest patient assistance charities in the U.S. The Mechanicsville, Virginia-based foundation helps patients afford expensive drugs by funding health insurance co-payments that can otherwise total more than $10,000 a year. Without the charity, which is funded almost entirely by drugmakers, many patients might not be able to afford life-saving medicine. (Langreth and Elgin, 11/29)
Stat:
Pharma Charity Under Fire For Letting Drug Makers Access Data
A charity that has received hundreds of millions of dollars from drug makers lost an important designation from federal authorities for allowing donors to influence how patient data was used. Caring Voice Coalition, which takes industry donations to help patients pay for their medicines, allowed drug makers access to information that could be used in deciding whether to raise prices. By doing so, authorities said, the companies could shield patients from the immediate effect of increased out-of-pocket costs, because federal health care programs, such as Medicare, would pick up the tab. Charities are prohibited by government regulations from disclosing detailed information about their operations. (Silverman, 11/29)
