Medical Product Industry Ties to Patient Advocacy Organizations’ Executive Leadership

Abstract

Patient advocacy organizations (PAOs) advance patient interests through promotion of disease awareness, engagement with policymakers, and partnership with medical product manufacturers in research and development.1 However, there are concerns that, in addition to industry financial support—which nearly half of PAOs accept2—having individuals formerly or currently based in industry serve on PAOs’ boards of directors and as senior leadership may influence PAOs’ priorities, advocacy, and recommendations.3 We identified the 50 highest-revenue US-based PAOs and examined whether their senior leadership had been or were currently employed by the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.