Diabetes Assn. Still in Corporate Deals

This comes from the latest Integrity in Science Watch from the Center for Science in the Public Interest:

The American Diabetes Association continues to form million-dollar partnerships with food and pharmaceutical companies despite recent changes to their corporate fund-raising guidelines triggered by ethics concerns, the New York Times reported last Saturday. As part of a $1.5 million sponsorship deal with Cadbury-Schweppes, for instance, the ADA has allowed the confectioner to put its logo on "healthy" Cadbury products such as diet sodas, and has promoted the company as a sponsor at ADA events.

The pharmaceutical industry has contributed millions to ADA, including Bayer, Eli Lilly, and GlaxoSmithKline. Six of seven physicians sitting on an ADA panel that considered controversial drug treatments for the approximately 41 million people at elevated risk for Type 2 diabetes have received money from pharmaceuticals companies. Three of those reported direct compensation from GlaxoSmithKline, a company that recently finished clinical trials for a prediabetes drug and donated $1 million to ADA last year.

ADA's incoming president, Dr. John Buse of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told the Times that he does not believe that these relationships with industry influence the organization's policy. The Times failed to report that Buse has received financial support from Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Merck, and Novartis.

Two former top executives at drug and device companies have led the ADA in recent years. The ADA says the new guidelines will help them "refrain from associating with companies that have the potential to damage ADA's image because of the nature of the companies' products, services or reputation." The group has let some food company deals expire as a result of the new guidelines.