The ballad of financial dependency: sponsoring in public health professional societies

Abstract

The European Public Health Association (EUPHA) has become one of the leading voices of public health in Europe. Its annual European Public Health Conference (EPH), jointly organized with the Association of Schools of Public Health in Europe (ASPHER), is now the main platform for direct exchange between scientists and public health practitioners. This is good. And yet there remains a constant irritant, repeatedly discussed in EUPHA boards, covered by a detailed ‘Code of Conduct’,1 and still not resolved to everybody’s satisfaction: the issue of industry sponsoring, in particular by the pharmaceutical sector. ASPHER, the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA)2 and many national public health professional societies face similar challenges. EUPHA regularly accepts pharmaceutical industry support (usually as unrestricted grants) in the context of the EPH conferences. In 2014, for example, two vaccine manufacturers supported pre-conference activities on vaccination which were promoted in the conference programme booklet. WFPHA and the Indian Public Health Association (IPHA) invite prospective sponsors of the 2015 World Congress on Public Health to ‘impact [their] target audience’ by covering travel expenses for keynote speakers and ‘nutrition breaks’ of delegates. Moreover, for a contribution of 40 000 US$, WFPHA/IPHA offer to endorse sponsors as ‘Public Health Champions’.3 Public health professionals who support such practice argue that professional attitudes and behaviours …