PLoS Medicine
(Accessed 17 April 2011)
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=browse&issn=1549-1676&method=pubdate&search_fulltext=1&order=online_date&row_start=1&limit=10&document_count=1533&ct=1&SESSID=aac96924d41874935d8e1c2a2501181c#results

Global Health Philanthropy and Institutional Relationships: How Should Conflicts of Interest Be Addressed?
David Stuckler, Sanjay Basu, Martin McKee Policy Forum, published 12 Apr 2011
doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001020

Summary Points

Institutional relationships in global health are a growing area of study, but few if any previous analyses have examined private foundations.

Tax-exempt private foundations and for-profit corporations have increasingly engaged in relationships that can influence global health.

Using a case study of five of the largest private global health foundations, we identify the scope of relationships between tax-exempt foundations and for-profit corporations.

Many public health foundations have associations with private food and pharmaceutical corporations. In some instances, these corporations directly benefit from foundation grants, and foundations in turn are invested in the corporations to which they award these grants.

Personnel move between food and drug industries and public health foundations. Foundation board members and decision-makers also sit on the boards of some for-profit corporations benefitting from their grants.

While private foundations adopt standard disclosure protocols for employees to mitigate potential conflicts of interests, these do not always apply to the overall endowment investments of the foundations or to board membership appointments. The extent and range of relationships between tax-exempt foundations and for-profit corporations suggest that transparency or grant-making recusal of employees alone may not be preventing potential conflicts of interests between global health programs and their financing.