In recent years, payments made by the pharmaceutical industry to doctors and medical institutions have increasingly been questioned critically, as the influence of these payments on medical work is estimated to be substantial. In order to strengthen confidence, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) reacted: The "Transparency Initiative" requires member companies to disclose "monetary benefits to members of professional circles and institutions" as of 2015. This should be accessible and traceable for everyone on the respective websites of the pharmaceutical companies.

The questions on which this project report is based are therefore the following: To what extent were Austrian physicians and medical institutions supported by pharmaceutical companies in 2018; how transparent are they in the disclosure of the financial benefits and how do the figures in this update compare to those of 2015?

In a systematic analysis, the websites of all PHARMIG member companies (113) were searched for information on financial allocations to Austrian physicians and medical institutions in 2018. For a total of 76 out of 113 PHARMIG member companies, cash-based benefits were found in 2018. 33 pharmaceutical companies stated that they had not made any financial contributions; the rest of the companies did not provide feedback on request. A total of 138.3 million Euros from PHARMIG member companies to doctors and medical institutions as well as to clinical research and application observations were made in Austria in 2018. From this amount, clinical and post-marketing studies were financed with around 81.5 million euros (59% of the total financial expenditures), medical institutions and organisations received 35.7 million Euros (26%) and medical doctors 21.1 million Euros (15%). In 2015, the ratio was as follows: Research and Development (52%), grants to institutions (26%), grants to physicians (22%).


Although the number of Pharmig member companies declaring benefits increased only slightly compared to 2015 (2015: 69/113, 2018: 76/115), in 2018 almost one third (32.8%) more benefits were received – in numbers a plus of 34.2 million Euros. In 2018, the share of donations to physicians in the total amount was 7% lower than in 2015. Since this value corresponds exactly to the increase in the category of research and development, a redeclaration can be assumed to have taken place here. The evaluation of the data from 2018 also shows that the actual willingness to disclose financial benefits, especially of physicians, is still low - the individual disclosure rate (mentioning by name) averaged only 21.1% (2015: 21.9%), which corresponds to 18.5% (2015: 17%) of the amounts paid out. In contrast, the willingness to disclose payments to medical institutions by name (institution) was still significantly higher on average at 49.4% (2015: 50.2%).