ASP Educational Grants and Goodwill

Educational Grants Process

ASP understands the need to comprehend all aspects of disease management and treatment and that both health care professionals and patients benefit from a wide variety of learning formats that employ generally accepted adult learning techniques.

ASP is proud to be able to provide grants to support educational activities and programs that help health care professionals enhance the care of their patients. We prioritize support in areas of scientific interest to the company that are intended to contribute to improvement in health care provider knowledge.

Our organization follows a defined and specific process to ensure that our procedures for making educational grants are in agreement with appropriate guidelines and policies. The guidance we use to evaluate our support of various educational programs is based on recognized standards.

• Educational grants may be given to support bona fide educational activities directed toward health care professionals or patients and may include funding for accredited/certified continuing education, fellowships, and patient education.
• Independent, company-supported educational activities are intended to benefit health care professionals and the patients they serve through the dissemination of information that contributes to the practice of medicine.
• ASP does not control or influence the content of programs or the selection of the speakers, authors, or faculty planners. This guideline applies equally to all educational activities involving any health care professional, or customer who is in a position to influence the purchase of ASP products.

ASP does not provide "unrestricted educational grants" and grant funds must be used for the purpose defined within the original request. Each grant request is evaluated for completeness based on four basic components:

1. An assessment documenting why the education is necessary
2. An agenda or brochure describing the schedule of events
3. A detailed budget identifying all sources of funding and how grant funds will be used
4. Evidence of accreditation to provide continuing education credit and/or tax exempt status

Educational grants must be provided in accordance with the policies and procedures of Guidance Documents and with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Guidance on Industry-Supported Scientific and Educational Activities. They must also be consistent with the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education Standards for Commercial Support (www.accme.org) ("ACCME Standards"), the American Medical Association Ethical Guidelines for Gifts to Physicians from Industry (www.ama-assn.org) ("AMA Guidelines"), the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals (www.phrma.org) ("PhRMA Code"), the AdvaMed Code of Ethics for Interactions with Health Care Professionals (www.advamed.org) ("AdvaMed Code") and/or other relevant industry standards.

ASP has:

• Written policies and procedures relating to the submission, review and approval of grant requests and interactions with educational providers, so as to comply with applicable requirements of the guidelines mentioned above;
• Review process for evaluation of educational grant requests
• Appropriate measures to ensure that support of educational programs are scientifically and clinically justified, and the program is not intended to be promotional in nature. ASP may consider the following factors:
  • The demonstrated scientific and clinical need for the program;
  • Whether the proposed program is sponsored solely by ASP or if our funding represents a significant proportion of the program budget;
  • The grant requestor's history, and whether prior educational activities appeared to be conducted in an independent and unbiased manner and not influenced by support from industry sponsors.

Please submit your requests for educational grants to HCCReview@its.jnj.com.