As part of the ongoing professionalisation and activities-expansion of patient organisations, their need for financial resources keeps increasing, which is often covered by pharmaceutical companies. In order to make these money transfers more transparent, the pharmaceutical industry has responded with voluntary commitments to greater transparency. The LBI-HTA conducted a systematic analysis of the published data in 2014 and is aiming to continue the consequent monitoring of these payments. The research question underlying this update of the systematic analysis for the year 2015 was to what extent patient initiatives in Austria received financial support from pharmaceutical companies in the year 2015.

Method: Again, the websites of all PHARMIG member companies (as of February 2017) were examined for information regarding financial support for patient organisations in the year 2015. The thus collected data were thereafter grouped according to pharma companies, patient organisations and fields of diseases.

Result: 36 of 116 PHARMIG member companies have declared donations to patient organisations for the year 2015. The verification of this information on the websites of patient organisations was of limited feasibility and success. A total sum of € 1.724.683 in grants to patient initiatives were reported by the PHARMIG member companies. Most grants (68%) were given to initiatives in the field of Oncology & Haematology, Neurology, Lung, Hepatitis, and Rheumatology. The biggest contribution to a single organisation by far was given to the Austrian Haemophilia Society with € 241.541,60; the Multiple Sclerosis trust came in second with € 100.000.
Altogether there was a significant increase in disclosure in comparison to 2014. Both the number of pharmaceutical companies that declared financial contributions and the total sum of contributions has risen by 50% (2014: € 1.145.718; 2015: € 1.724.683; + € 578.965; 2014: 24/116; 2015: 36/116; + 12).

Conclusions: The pharmaceutical companies in Austria have taken an important first step towards greater transparency, but a second step, an improved implementation needs to follow. Rigorous monitoring by a critical public is required to further pursue the realisation of this goal.