Pharmaceutical companies should make grant process transparent
February 3, 2009
In theory, creating a grant strategy is easy, but not in practice, said Belinda Hunt, PhD, associate director of medical education and grants at Biogen Idec in Wellesley, MA.
Hunt, speaking on a panel during the Center for Business Intelligence’s Sixth Annual Pharmaceutical Compliance Congress in Washington D.C. January 27, said companies should first set up a grant committee to evaluate each grant application. The authority to approve grants can reside in the medical affairs, legal, or compliance department, but should not be in the sales and marketing department.
“It depends on what makes sense for your organization,” Hunt said.
While companies can use a variety of criteria when evaluating a grant, they should be sure the grant supports bona fide educational content, Hunt added.
If a pharmaceutical company issues a request for proposal (RFP), it should be care about what it puts into the RFP, Sujata Dayal, Esq., a partner with Karmact LLC in Chicago, said. Companies should avoid being too specific in the RFP so they are not accused of guiding the content of the program.
“Transparency is the key to what is going on in the grant world,” said Retta Riordan, Esq., principal with Riordan Consulting LLC in Westfield, NJ.