Drug companies donated at least $116 million to patient advocacy groups in 2015, according to a new database compiled by Kaiser Health News.
The publication's "Pre$cription for Power" database includes 12,000 donations from 14 large, publicly traded drugmakers to patient groups in 2015, which is the most recent year with available Internal Revenue Service documents. KHN used information from drug companies' charitable giving reports and federal 990 regulatory filings to compile the database.
Here are four database findings.
1. The 14 drugmakers spent much less on lobbying — about $63 million — than patient group donations in 2015.
2. Six drug companies donated a million dollars or more to advocacy groups representing patients who use their drugs.
3. Of 1,200 patient groups identified in the database, 594 accepted money from the pharmaceutical industry.
4. Drug industry donations accounted for at least 20 percent of total revenue for 15 patient groups, some with annual revenues as high as $3.6 million.