Controversy about the sponsorship threatens to undermine the study’s credibility, the company said.
Brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev, one of five alcohol companies underwriting a $100 million federal trial on the health benefits of a daily drink, is pulling its funding from the project, saying controversy about the sponsorship threatens to undermine the study’s credibility, the company announced Friday.
The company announced its decision in a letter to Maria C. Freire, president and executive director of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, a nongovernmental entity that is authorized to raise money from the private sector for N.I.H. initiatives and manages the institutes’ public-private partnerships.
The N.I.H. last month suspended enrollment in the 10-year clinical trial on the health benefits of moderate drinking after The New York Times reported that N.I.H. officials and scientists met directly with alcohol groups to solicit funds and strongly hinted the study’s results would favor moderate drinking.
Anheuser-Busch InBev had committed $15.4 million to support the trial, representing nearly one-quarter of the $66 million in funds pledged to date by beer and liquor companies to date. The payments were being channeled through the Foundation for the N.I.H. in 10 annual installments, and payments started three years ago.
In the letter to Dr. Freire, Andrés Peñate, global vice president for regulatory and public policy for AB InBev, said the company agreed to fund the 10-year randomized controlled trial “because we believed it would yield valuable, science-based insights into the health effects of moderate drinking.” He emphasized the company had no role in the design or execution of the research and said “stringent firewalls were put in place” to “safeguard the objectivity and independence of the science.”
“Unfortunately, recent questions raised around the study could undermine its lasting credibility, which is why we have decided to end our funding,” the letter concluded.
The alcohol study is overseen by the N.I.H.’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and was expected to provide conclusive evidence regarding longstanding questions about whether moderate daily alcohol consumption reduces the risk of heart disease, as well as diabetes and cognitive impairment.
The trial’s protocol calls for recruiting 7,800 men and women who are at high risk for heart disease and ask half to abstain from alcohol and half to have a single serving of alcohol every day, seven days a week. The participants are to be followed for six years on average.
Source : Nytimes
