As the interplay between the pharmaceutical industry and patient advocacy groups undergoes stepped-up scrutiny, a new analysis finds a large majority of Canadian groups that submitted comments about pending government coverage for medicines also held conflicts with drug makers.
Specifically, 87 percent of comments were made by Canadian groups that had a conflict of interest, such as industry backing. And of those comments, 86 percent involved a conflict with the drug maker that was marketing the medicine being reviewed by the Common Drug Review and panCanadian Oncology Drug Review. These agencies make recommendations to provincial and federal drug plans about funding coverage.
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