- Author
- AFAO - Australian Federation of AIDS Organsiations
- Title
- AFAO Briefing Paper: Pharmaceutical Industry Sponsorship
- Imprint
- AFAO, October 1997, 5 pp
- Description
Reproduced with AFAO's kind permission.
- Abstract
"Community Organisations in Australia facing the challenges of HIV/AIDS historically do so unfunded, partially or fully funded through grants from the State/Territory and or Commonwealth Health Departments, or are reliant on their own fund raising abilities. In the last several years, pharmaceutical companies developing or marketing HIV related drugs have begun to offer/negotiate with several HIV/AIDS organisations including AFAO around funding of certain aspects of the work of community based organisations (usually in the area of treatments). There are some common community perceptions that these companies are ruled by self interest, and that there is very little benefit to community organisations in taking drug company sponsorship. These perceptions about drug company sponsorship of activities of community based organisations may potentially impact negatively on the services, projects and resources that are funded by pharmaceutical companies. On the other hand, a number of events and projects have been conducted in recent years using grants from pharmaceutical companies, without attracting any criticism. There does appear to be increasing acceptance within the community about use of pharmaceutical company funding, particularly as government funding for HIV/AIDS is not likely to increase."