english.prescrire.org > Positions > Transparency > Prescrire's finances: total transparency

Theme: Transparency

Transparency means full disclosure of the interests — and conflicts of interest — that come into play at all levels of the healthcare system. Prescrire consistently calls for – and practices – full transparency.

Prescrire's finances: total transparency

Funded entirely by subsribers and free from any conflicts of interest, Prescrire publishes its annual financial statements every March.

Since 1992, Prescrire has published its accounts each year in the March issue.

Prescrire’s sole source of funding is its 30 000 subscribers, mostly practising or trainee healthcare professionals.

Prescrire is one of the world’s few continuing medical education publications that is totally independent, both from the pharmaceutical industry and the health authorities.

This financial autonomy guarantees the impartiality that is so crucial: Prescrire is accountable only to its subscribers, who rely on it to evaluate new drugs and decisions by the French and European health authorities, without there being a conflict of interest.

In publishing its accounts, Prescrire exemplifies the transparency so necessary in the medical field, where vast commercial interests are at stake. It shows that there is no need for journals to be funded by the pharmaceutical companies, which are always eager to finance drug regulatory agencies, healthcare professionals’ initial training and continuing medical education, and even patients’ groups. But there is always an ulterior motive and the funding has strings attached.

Through Prescrire, French healthcare professionals show that they are capable of financing a high-quality independent training resource that champions the need for quality care in the best interests of their patients. La revue Prescrire is owned by the Association Mieux Prescrire, a not-for-profit organisation which is open to its subscribers.

©Prescrire 2008

Prescrire Int 2008; 17 (95): 128-129.

> Learn more about Prescrire's finances.
More information:
"Bilan de l'année 2007"