Sponsorship of Canadian Professional Medical Societies by Drug, Medical Device and Medical Technology Companies: a Cross-sectional Study

INTRODUCTION

Sponsorship of professional medical societies by healthcare (drug, medical device and medical technology) companies is widespread. There are reports that recommendations from societies have been influenced by financial conflict of interest^1,2 and calls for societies to transform their mode of operation to prevent the appearance or reality of undue industry influence on their actions.³

To date there has been no investigation of donations and sponsorships by healthcare companies to Canadian societies.

METHODS

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPS-C) website lists national medical societies.⁴ The websites of these societies were searched on January 8–15, 2022, for sponsorship of the society and/or its annual meetings. I collected names of companies, value of sponsorship, presence of company logo on society and/or meeting webpage, hyperlink to company website, percent of society revenue from sponsorships, whether society solicited sponsorships and the presence of a policy on relationships with companies. Only descriptive statistics are reported.

Societies were not directly contacted as the aim was to determine if information about sponsorship was publicly available. Since all data were public, ethics approval was not required.

RESULTS

Seventy societies were listed. Four were members of one federation and one was a subsection of a second, leaving 65 for analysis.

Sponsorship of Society

Twenty-three (35.4%) named companies as sponsors with a median of 9 companies (interquartile range 2, 12) per society. No society gave the exact value of individual sponsorships: one gave dollar ranges, 13 put sponsorship into categories without a dollar value for the categories (Table 1).

Table 1.

Information About Sponsorships on 65 Canadian Medical Societies Websites

Type of sponsorship	Number of societies (percent) declaring sponsorship by healthcare (drug, medical device, medical technology) companies	Median number of companies named (interquartile range)	Sponsor logo on society website (number and percent of societies)	Hyperlink to sponsors’ websites (number and percent of societies)	Active recruitment of sponsorships (number and percent of societies)	Value of sponsorship (number and percent of societies)			Percent of total revenue from sponsorships (number and percent of societies)	Number (and percent) of societies with policy about relationship with companies
						Dollar range	Category*	Not given
General	23 (35.4)	9 (2, 12)	19 (29.2)	16 (24.6)	13 (20.0)	1 (1.5)	13 (20.0)	9 (13.8)	2 (3.1)	10 (15.4)
Annual meeting	25 (38.5)	9 (4, 15)	23 (35.4)	10 (15.4)	14 (21.5)	0 (0)	22 (33.8)	3 (4.6)	0 (0)

*For example, gold, silver, bronze

Sponsorship of Annual Meeting

Twenty-five (38.5%) societies listed companies as sponsors, with a median of 9 companies (IQR 4, 15) per society. Twenty-two of the 25 societies put the value of sponsorships into categories without a dollar value for the categories (Table 1).

Company Logos and Hyperlinks to Company Websites

The logo of sponsoring companies was present on general webpages in 19 cases and on the meeting webpages 23 times. Hyperlinks were present from 16 general webpages and in 10 meeting webpages (Table 1).

Relationship Between Soliciting Sponsorships and Presence of Policies About Interactions with Companies

Thirteen societies solicited general sponsorships and 14 solicited sponsorships for their annual meetings. Ten societies had policies about interactions with companies, including 4 that did not solicit sponsorships (Table 2).

Table 2.

Relationship Between Solicitation of Sponsorships and Policies About Interactions with Companies

Society	Solicits general sponsorship	Solicits sponsorship for annual meeting/conference	Has policy about society interactions with companies
A	No	Yes	No
B	No	Yes	No
C	No	No	Yes
D	Yes	No	No
E	Yes	No	No
F	No	Yes	No
G	No	Yes	No
H	Yes	No	No
I	No	Yes	No
J	Yes	No	No
K	Yes	Yes	No
L	No	No	Yes
M	No	Yes	Yes
N	Yes	Yes	No
O	Yes	No	No
P	Yes	Yes	Yes
Q	No	Yes	Yes
R	No	No	Yes
S	Yes	Yes	Yes
T	Yes	No	No
U	Yes	No	No
V	Yes	No	No
W	No	No	Yes
X	No	Yes	Yes
Y	Yes	Yes	Yes
Z	No	Yes	No

Annual Revenue and Percent of Revenue from Sponsorships

Two societies reported total revenue from corporate sponsorships: 40.9% ($328,250/$802,421) and 9.2% ($40,873/$445,070) of annual revenue, respectively.

DISCUSSION

Twenty-three (35.4%) out of 65 societies reported company sponsorship and 25 (38.5%) reported sponsorship for annual meetings. Most societies with either type of sponsorship displayed the logos of their sponsors and provided hyperlinks to their websites. Only two societies gave information to calculate what percent of their revenue came from sponsorships. Over one-fifth of societies solicited sponsorships but only 10 had policies about how to deal with relationships.

The lack of transparency about sponsorships is consistent with previous research about other aspects of the interactions between Canadian medical societies and healthcare companies. Shnier and colleagues found that these societies’ policies on industry involvement in continuing medical education were generally weak or non-existent.⁵ Almost all Canadian professional societies and disease condition organizations that published clinical practice guidelines were found to receive industry funding. Although most reported industry funding on their websites, none identified this within the guideline.⁶

Internationally, reporting is also poor. Out of 131 Italian medical societies, 29.0% had manufacturers’ logos on their webpage, 4.6% had an ethical code covering relationships with industry, 6.1% published an annual financial report and 64.9% received sponsorship for their last conference.⁷

Limitations

The results only apply to the societies listed on the website of the RCPS-C. Information about sponsorship of trainees’ travel and accommodation and society awards was not collected. When information was absent, we do not know if societies did not receive or did not report sponsorships. I did not examine content limited to society members which may contain additional information.

CONCLUSION

Because of the lack of disclosure by Canadian societies about sponsorships from healthcare companies and the absence of policies dealing with interactions, it is difficult to determine whether societies’ activities are influenced by their relationships with companies.

Declarations

Conflict of Interest

In 2019–2021, Joel Lexchin received payments for writing a brief on the role of promotion in generating prescriptions for Goodmans LLP and from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for presenting at a workshop on conflict of interest in clinical practice guidelines. He is a member of the Foundation Board of Health Action International and the Board of Canadian Doctors for Medicare. He receives royalties from University of Toronto Press and James Lorimer & Co. Ltd. for books he has written.