“I never went to a meeting,” Raymond said. “A former employee signed us up for a whole host of coalitions. I think we put our name on something or someone did.”
She said the Lupus Foundation was no longer a member of the coalition. Days after Kaiser Health News reached out to the coalition, its website was updated, excluding the Lupus Foundation.
For its part, AbbVie – which overall donated $24.7 million to patient groups in 2015, according to the new database – stipulates that its grants to nonprofits are “non-promotional” and provide no direct benefit to its business, according to a company statement. The company gives to patient groups because they serve as an “important, unbiased and independent resource for patients and caregivers.”
Insulin and influence
The American Diabetes Association said in an email to KHN that it received $18.3 million in pharmaceutical funding in 2017, accounting for 12.3% of its revenue; that was down from $26.7 million in 2015. The money flowed in as insulin makers continued to hike prices in those years – up to four times per product – leading to hardships for patients.