21 October 2018 - Like many patient advocacy groups, the Canadian Spondylitis Association – which is focused on arthritis in the spine – relied on funding from major drug makers. 

But in March of 2017, Michael Mallinson saw the results of the focus-group project his organization participated in, which found patients were “strongly opposed” to switching from their brand-name drug to a cheaper near-copy. That conclusion aligned with the viewpoints of Janssen and AbbVie, which paid for the report and had the most to lose from competition. 

Mallinson says a Janssen employee threatened to stop funding the group after it pulled out of the project. Janssen refuted that characterization, but nevertheless, the firm rejected the group’s funding requests in 2017 and 2018.

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