Pharma Phacts: In the Media
Sanofi Aventis and Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute 

Pharmaceutical company Sanofi Aventis was fined $25,000 by Medicines Australia, the industry’s regulatory body for a funding deal linking prescriptions with donations.
Sanofi Aventis would donate 25 cents from every packet sold of its anti-clotting drug Plavix to the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, amounting to an annual sum of $500,000 to use in research.

Pharmaceutical company Sanofi Aventis has been hit with a $25,000 fine by the industry’s regulatory body for a controversial deal with a leading medical research institute. In the deal, Sanofi-Aventis donated 25 cents from every packet sold of its top-selling anti-clotting drug Plavix to the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute. The Baker’s affiliation with Sanofi and Plavix was advertised in a key medical publication, Australian Doctor. The Baker was set to receive an annual sum of $500,000 from the deal, to use in ground-breaking research.
Medicines Australia found the deal breached a provision of the code that banned anything that would “interfere with the independence of a healthcare professional’s prescribing or dispensing practices”. It imposed the fine and found Sanofi-Aventis had to “cease ... linking a donation or sponsorship via script sales”.
Read the article in the Australian. 
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25515016-23289,00.html