Pharmaceutical Industry Payments to Patient Organizations in Poland: Analysis of the Patterns, Evolution, and Structure of Connections

Drug company funding can create conflicts of interest that compromise the integrity of patient organizations, a problem studied primarily in Western Europe and North America. To address this research gap, we conducted a case study in Poland, a Central European country. Between 2012 and 2020, 33 companies reported payments worth €13 729 644 to 273 patient organizations in Poland. The funding was highly concentrated, with the top ten recipients amassing 46.2 percent of the total amount. Cancer patient organizations were the primary recipients, receiving 37.5 percent. The funding focused on patient organizations' educational activities, constituting 40.4 percent of the total. For the ten companies reporting payments consistently from 2012 to 2020, we detected an increase in both the value of individual payments and the overall value of the funding. Additionally, some patient organizations formed exclusive, or nearly exclusive, ties with single companies. Overall, our study reveals important similarities between Poland and Western countries in the reported distribution of drug company payments to patient organizations. It also highlights priority areas for further research, including the evolution and structure of the financial connections.