VR Foundation is currently developing a Corporate Membership Program that will support our education, outreach, and advocacy programs while providing companies with a range of benefits designed to help them meet their key business goals.

Collaboration Principles

There is an important role for collaboration between patients, healthcare professionals, the pharmaceutical industry and non-profit organisations in providing best solutions to patients’ health needs. Each partner has a unique role and responsibility in ensuring that patients receive the most appropriate care.

As we work with different partners in the healthcare ecosystem on a variety of initiatives and activities, VR Foundation is committed to ensuring that our relationships with these groups remain thoughtful, ethical, and transparent. Mindful of established industry practices and guidelines, we have developed our own set of principles to guide our ongoing collaborations:

• Put patients first
• Support ethical research and innovation
• Ensure independence and ethical conduct  
• Promote transparency and accountability.

We recognize that as a non-profit organization with global reach, we are subject to often differing laws, rules, and regulations in the many locations where we operate. As such, we always comply with local rules involving interactions between patient organizations and the pharmaceutical industry, including:

• Consensus Framework for Ethical Collaboration between Patients’ Organisations, Healthcare Professionals and the Pharmaceutical Industry (2014)  
• WMA Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (2013)  
• Healthcare Industry Partners Framework (2012)
• IFPMA Code of Practice (established in 1981; last revision 2012) 
• Statement Concerning the Relationships between Physicians and Commercial Enterprises (2009) 
• Code Of Practice On Relationships between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Patient Organizations (approved in 2007 and amended in June 2011).