GLCC Sustaining Partners are commercial companies that want to establish a long-term relationship with the Coalition and wish to demonstrate their commitment to lung cancer patients by helping GLCC promote global understanding of the burden of lung cancer and the right of patients to effective early detection, better treatment and supportive care.
A Sustaining Partner that donates a grant of £30,000 or more per year receives:
- Recognition as a Sustaining Partner on the GLCC Web-site
- Link from GLCC web-site to your corporate web-site
- Opportunity to meet the GLCC leadership at an annual patient-industry summit to discuss issues of concern to both commercial organisations and cancer patients
- Opportunity to propose collaborative projects which will have priority status over those proposed by non-Sustaining Partners
- Regular e-mail updates on GLCC’s activities
Funding: Guiding Principles
GLCC will foster dialogue, and establish collaborative partnerships, with the many companies whose commercial decisions affect the chance of survival and quality of life of lung cancer patients. Patient organisation-pharmaceutical company partnerships are sometimes viewed with scepticism by decision-makers and the general public. Some believe that pharmaceutical companies coerce patient organisations into conforming to their marketing agenda. In order to protect the Coalition’s reputation and demonstrate that GLCC does not conform to commercial agendas, the Coalition will adhere to the following principles when accepting or soliciting or accepting project funding, sponsorship, grants or donations from commercial companies:
- GLCC will maintain an open and transparent relationship with all commercial partners
- Before accepting funding from a commercial company the Steering Group must be satisfied that:
- There are strong grounds for believing the donation, grant or sponsorship will result in benefit to the Coalition and its members
- No adverse publicity will result from accepting the funds
- GLCC will closely review all potential commercial partners’ corporate governance policies, their reputation in working with patient organisations and their environmental policies and practices. If there is any cause for concern, funds will either be accepted on a ‘no acknowledgment’ basis or the Coalition will reject the funds
- GLCC will not knowingly accept any type of funding from a company that produces or sells tobacco brands, or receives funding from their sales
- GLCC will not endorse or promote individual products or services
- A company’s support will be acknowledged in an appropriate way following discussions with the company concerned
- GLCC commercial partners must agree to abide with the guidelines outlined in Appendix 1 below
- If a company makes any attempt to coerce the Coalition to conform to its marketing agenda, either explicitly or implicitly, or does not conform to the memorandum of agreement, GLCC will reject the funds or terminate an on-going project
Where possible, GLCC will solicit funding from consortia composed of two or more companies from the same industry.
Appendix 1
GUIDELINES FOR COMMERCIAL COMPANIES ON WORKING WITH GLCC
The Coalition will not embark upon or continue with any sponsorship, grant making or collaborative venture that might damage its reputation or result in the dissemination of biased and inaccurate information to the general public and cancer patients. Therefore, when working with the Coalition, commercial companies should adhere to the following guidelines:
- The Coalition must be consulted whenever and wherever its name is used, particularly in external communications. Approval must be sought for any copy produced which refers to a Coalition initiative supported by a commercial organisation.
- At no time can the Coalition’s logo be used without express written permission.
- At no time can press releases be issued which refer to the Coalition without our prior approval. Likewise suggested quotes can be prepared but must always be agreed by the Steering Group.
- The Coalition retains a veto over all materials produced in connection with an initiative. Adequate approval time needs to be allowed for this as it may require approval from one or more Steering Group Members.
- Where more than one branded version of a product exists, any materials produced, as part of an initiative will use either the scientific name or several different brand names. It may not be practicable to mention every brand at every stage in a publication but overall the effect will be one of impartiality.
- The Coalition is happy to work with PR/advertising and marketing agencies of commercial organisations once a project is underway. However, in the first instance, when a project is being planned or suggested, the Coalition requires a representative from the company to be present as well as the agency.
- One point of contact should be identified within the company and/or agency to liaise with the appropriate opposite number in the Coalition. Clear lines of communication need to be established at an early stage with respective responsibilities and assignments agreed to ensure smooth progress with a project.
Sustaining Partners 2023
Amgen – AstraZeneca – Boehringer Ingelheim – Bristol Myers Squibb – Daiichi Sankyo
Eli Lilly – Merck – Novartis – Novocure – Regeneron – Roche – Sanofi – Takeda
Pfizer, in 2023, supported two pieces of GLCC work – ‘Global State of Lung Cancer Research’ and ‘Analysis and Creation of Reports from the Patient Experience survey’.
