kavin submitted, created time 3 months 3 weeks (blogs.wsj.com)

Doctors and medical associations have taken plenty of lumps for relying on drug companies to sponsor continuing medical education courses. Critics say the sessions are often biased in favor of a particular medicine or drugs over alternative treatments for disease.

Now add journalists to the groups that are getting professional education subsidized by Big Pharma.

At the Unity convention in Chicago-–a gathering of thousands of minority journalists-–the diabetes drug maker Novo Nordisk sponsored a lunch yesterday called, “The Diabetes Explosion: A Call to Action for Journalists of Color.”

The panelists included doctors from Harvard, Johns Hopkins and the National Institutes of Health, as well as some journalists. Billed as a “Lunch ‘n’ Learn Event,” the promotional material for the session invited attendees to hear from “distinguished experts in diabetes” about the disproportionate effect of type 2 diabetes on people of color and “how journalism can be used to help combat this disease.”

An Phan, a spokeswoman for Novo Nordisk, said 274 journalists showed up for the lunch. She said the company selected the speakers and “set the agenda” for what the panelists should talk about, but that the panelists came up with their own presentations. There was no discussion of brand-name drugs, she said, or any effort to promote Novo Nordisk products. She said the lunch was the first time the company had sponsored such an event for journalists.

A spokesman for Unity, which takes place every four years, wasn’t immediately available for comment. For comparison’s sake, the Association of Health Care Journalists doesn’t accept funds from manufacturers of health-care products, including drugs and medical devices.

Novo isn’t the only pharmaceutical company making a financial contribution to Unity. Eli Lilly is a bronze sponsor of the event. The list of sponsors goes beyond drugmakers and includes McDonald’s and embattled government mortgage giant Freddie Mac, which is underwriting a panel called “Starting out in Business Journalism.”

Bonus Bucks: Jim Hopkins, who writes Gannett Blog, hit the corporate funding of the Unity conference in a post back in April. We hadn’t seen it until now, but recommend a look.

Keywords: journalism the media marketing ethics public health care National Institutes of Health diabetes drugs health education