GSK details $28.5m of research payments to US institutions
pharmafile | April 1, 2011 | News story | Research and Development | GSK, payments
GlaxoSmithKline has made public the payments it gave last year to US institutions engaged in clinical research on its behalf.
GSK shelled out $28.5 million to hospitals, universities and research centres during 2010 for their help in conducting various programmes.
Therapy areas ranged from cardiovascular disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to macular degeneration and various cancers.
“We understand the changing expectations for our industry in regards to these partnerships and so we are choosing to take steps to provide increased transparency to details about the way we work together,” said Moncef Slaoui, GSK’s chairman of R&D.
In total, there are 127 studies on the list with 595 different lead researchers or principal investigators associated with them in the US, along with the amount of money received by an institution for a particular study.
GSK insists that, “in most cases”, it does not know the amount of compensation individuals are in turn paid for their work.
The amounts paid to institutions vary widely: for example, Indiana University’s Oral Health Research Institute received more than $500,000 for three programmes while the Michigan Head, Pain and Neurological Institute was given just $3,000.
Costs covered include study visits, diagnostic tests, laboratory services and patient assessments, and monitoring of clinical outcomes and drug safety.
GSK’s new list ranks the payments numerically by clinical research study number, details of which can be found on the GSK Clinical Study Register site.
While this approach makes finding total payments to institutions more difficult, it does give an insight into the sheer number of payments companies are required to make in multi-centre trials.
Take the phase III trial pitting GSK’s own GLP-1 receptor agonist Syncria (albiglutide) against MSD’s DPP-4 Januvia (sitagliptin): designed to test the drugs in patients with type II diabetes mellitus with renal impairment, GSK made around 120 separate payments to one research company for work in numerous locations.
“We continue to believe that working together to examine the benefits and risks of potential medicines is critical if we are to maintain our contribution to improving global health,” Slaoui added.
GSK also posted an update to its quarterly listing of healthcare professionals who have been paid for speaking on behalf of the company or advising the company. This showed that in 2010, 5,331 US healthcare professionals were paid a total of $56.8 million. The company has voluntarily posted these payments since 2009.
In the UK moves towards greater transparency on similar issues are to be forced on pharma companies over the next couple of years.
The new ABPI Code of Practice requires firms to declare annually from 2013 the total amount they pay to doctors and others for services such as conference speeches, as well as the number of consultants they employ.
Adam Hill
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