Pick a disease, any disease. Drugmaker A has a treatment and wants to get the message out about the malady, and boost sales. Patients want to raise awareness for other patients, and in some cases, win backing from government officials for research funding or reimbursement.

Sounds like a win-win, yes? No, not always. At a time when safety and pricing generate torrential criticism, it may not be surprising to hear that a new survey finds consumers are ‘deeply suspicous’ of the industry backing given non-profit patient groups.

Rather than simply acknowledging drugmakers are simultaneously pushing the profit motive and altruisitically contributing to society, a big chunk of the public apparently sees such efforts as a nothing less than a sneaky form of stealth marketing and even disease mongering.

A key problem, according to Envision Solutions, which queried 1,062 Americans age 18 and older earlier this month, is a lack of transparency explaining the extent of the ties, and too much emphasis on such vague phrasing as ‘providing unrestricted educational grants.’

Envision Solutions, by the way, is a healthcare consulting and communications firm, and its clients include non-profits and drugmakers.

Here are some of the findings:

- 43 percent say funding is designed to sell more drugs, while 23 percent say drugmakers are trying to help the group and its patients and 21 percent say the company cares about the issue;

- The suspicions are about equally held between men and women, although more whites than non-whites - 44 percent to 38 percent - expressed disbelief at the ties;

- Income matters: 39 percent making less than $50K harbor doubts, compared with 47 percent making more than $50K. Suspicion is about the same regardless of a college education;

- As for age, 35 percent of those between 18 and 34 years old are suspicious, but 47 percent of those older than 34 expressed skepticism.

There was room for write-in responses, and while these were few, they were revealing: 17 people mentioned improving public image and 15 cited tax benefits.

You can read a brief summary of the report here. As do many firms, Envision Solutions charges for a complete copy. Pharmalot received the report as a member of the media, and so did not pay.
[tags]Non-Profit, Stealth Marketing[/tags]