Abstract
David Stuckler and colleagues examine five large private global health foundations and report on the scope of relationships between these tax-exempt foundations and for-profit corporations including major food and pharmaceutical companies.
Highlights
The relationships of concern between for-profit institutions and health-related organizations can involve direct financing—such as when pharmaceutical companies give gifts to physicians in a manner that has been shown to increase prescribing of the promoted drugs [3,4]—or indirect relationship-building, such as when corporate staff or paid consultants act as board members or strategic advisors to health organizations
In the interests of public health, and because poor communities affected by foundations do not automatically have a feedback mechanism to influence the decisions of private funders, we argue that it is appropriate to subject private foundations to the same scrutiny received by public institutions
We examine the scope of potential conflicts of interests that exist among the private foundations that are major funders of global health
Summary
We have observed that five major US private nonprofit foundations have significant investments in food and/or pharmaceutical companies, directors who currently or have previously sat on the boards of those companies, and, in several cases, enter in partnerships with those companies. (1) Divestment Private foundations have been advised to not invest in companies that stand to profit from the tax-exempt foundation’s agenda or in those that produce products such as tobacco, salty foods, or sugary drinks that have well-established connections to global health epidemics [71]. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation held stock in Merck at a time when it developed partnerships with the African Comprehensive AIDS and Malaria Partnership and the Merck Company Foundation to test Merck products As another instance, which may reflect aligning interests, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has played a leading role in promoting anti-tobacco products and maintains Smoking Cessation Leadership Centers and programs [72], its endowment is mainly invested in Johnson & Johnson, a leading manufacturer of cessation products, and some board members have been represented on both the Foundation’s and the company’s boards [53]. While the information we collected to conduct this case study is all in the public domain
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