Drug Charity May Shutter After U.S. Faults Pharma Influence
- Office of Inspector General cites charity, drugmaker ties
- Caring Voice funded almost entirely by pharmaceutical industry
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A medical charity that received hundreds of millions of dollars from pharmaceutical companies lost a crucial stamp of approval from the U.S. government, after allowing its donors improper influence over how the nonprofit was run.
For the last decade, Caring Voice Coalition has been one of the biggest patient assistance charities in the U.S. The Mechanicsville, Virginia-based foundation helps patients afford expensive drugs by funding health insurance co-payments that can otherwise total more than $10,000 a year. Without the charity, which is funded almost entirely by drugmakers, many patients might not be able to afford life-saving medicine.