CDC Conflicts of Interest

CDC does not just award grants, it also obtains research grants from other federal agencies and industry. Here is one grant CDC got from an Australian biotech company to advance research on the company's pandemic flu vaccine. How might such relationships affect CDC's impartiality in fulfilling its mission to recommend vaccines for general use in the US?

Furthermore, CDC created the CDC Foundation to enable it to accept corporate (and other) gifts. It appears that corporations can use CDC to advance their own interests by, for example, "creat[ing] health education campaigns" and "invest[ing] in specific programmatic areas." For example:

Businesses and Corporations

Restricted Support: Some corporations wish to invest in a specific programmatic area within CDC. These gifts typically help defray all or some of the costs of carrying out a scientific study, health education campaign, training program or other public health program. Often funding partners become engaged early on in a project to clearly understand its objectives or participate in the program design. Several partners may jointly fund a program to provide adequate resources to ensure its successful completion. Read more about CDC Foundation partnerships that help corporations and CDC achieve common goals. To find out about contributing to a particular program, call the Advancement Office at 404-653-0790 or e-mail jsmith@cdcfoundation.org.

Annual Alliance: The CDC Foundation's Annual Alliance campaign provides companies of all sizes the opportunity to align themselves with the public health objectives of CDC, while providing unrestricted support to the CDC Foundation. Learn More