Eli Lilly Grants Report

Posted by Jacob Goldstein in the Wall Street Journal Health Blog A week after a Senate committee released a report on charitable and educational contributions made by drug companies, Eli Lilly is releasing its own detailed report on the grants it makes to nonprofit groups, educational institutions and for-profit educational companies. The company gave away $11.8 million in the first quarter of 2007. That included big grants to well-known organizations — Massachusetts General Hospital ($848,750), National Alliance for the Mentally Ill ($544,500), the American Medical Association ($249,500) — as well as smaller gifts to more obscure groups — Central Indiana Association of Pharmacists ($4,000), Greater Saint Stephen Health Ministry ($10,000), Hispanas Organized for Political Equality ($10,000). The industry says grants like these help educate doctors and patients. But some critics have said that such funding skews educational content in favor of the industry and the drugs it produces. Lilly’s decision to post the information each quarter on a public Web site may allow critics and supporters to track the grants more easily and to gauge whether they’re appropriate.