Introduction

Over the past years, Alzheimer Europe has developed close working relations with a number of commercial companies which supported some of the activities of Alzheimer Europe. In order to provide greater transparency to the sponsoring agreements and to provide greater choice and flexibility to potential sponsors, Alzheimer Europe has developed the present document outlining the different sponsorship opportunities available to commercial companies.

Since Alzheimer Europe is committed to full transparency in all its dealings with commercial entities, all sponsorship will be duly acknowledged in the sponsor section of the Alzheimer Europe website (www.alzheimer-europe.org) and the financial section of the Annual Report of the organisation. Also, in line with the criteria for transparency developed by the European Medicines Agency, Alzheimer Europe will publish the full amounts received by commercial companies, as well as the percentage which those amounts constitute in relation to the total income of the organisation.

All sponsors will receive monthly updates on the various activities and projects of the organisation.

Alzheimer Europe welcomes contributions to the public affairs funding of the organisation, as well as to specific projects of Alzheimer Europe. While the following presents a list of the different sponsorship opportunities available to companies from Alzheimer Europe, the organisation will also happily discuss other projects and actions not mentioned in this document, but directly proposed by potential sponsors. For all its dealings with companies, Alzheimer Europe refers to its guidelines for working with commercial sponsors contained in an annex to this document.

This document highlights the actions which Alzheimer Europe is planning on carrying out in 2011 and provides a financial break down of these actions.

Financing levels

In order to continue the tradition of some companies to support the entirety of the public affairs activities of Alzheimer Europe, Alzheimer Europe will provide a number of sponsorship packages to companies and the sponsors will receive a detailed list of benefits they will be able to count on.

For 2011, Alzheimer Europe would like to propose three levels of sponsorship.

According to the chosen level, Alzheimer Europe will provide a number of benefits to the sponsor. These benefits are outlined in the table below.

Sponsorship opportunities included in financing

Dementia in Europe Magazine

Alzheimer Europe will continue publishing its special magazine entitled “Dementia in Europe” with a clear focus on policy developments in different European countries. This magazine will also update readers on the state of signatures of the Paris Declaration and will highlight any initiatives on a national or European level that are in line with the political priorities of the declaration.

The magazine will be published three times in 2011 and will be distributed free of charge to Members of the European Parliament and the European Commission, as well as through the member organisations of Alzheimer Europe to national policy makers. Furthermore, the magazine will be distributed to other European stakeholders who currently receive the e-mail newsletter of the organisation. Special attention will also be paid to disseminating the AE magazine to the media contacts of the organisation.

The printed magazine will not be called upon to replace the e-mail newsletter of the organisation which will continue to focus on the activities of Alzheimer Europe and on scientific breakthroughs in the dementia field. The printed magazine will not cover these aspects, but will be focused solely on policy initiatives.

It is envisaged to also include interviews with European and national policy makers in the newsletter and to give the possibility to researchers interested in the public health aspects of dementia to publish articles in the Alzheimer Europe newsletter.

Company Round Table

In June 2011, Alzheimer Europe will organise a meeting with all interested companies in order to discuss common issues with regard to the research and regulatory environment. Alzheimer Europe will associate, if possible, representatives from the European Medicines Agency in this work.

At the same moment, time will be allocated for those companies interested in sharing their research activities and discussing issues such as design of clinical trial protocols or patient recruitment with representatives of the members of Alzheimer Europe. This section of the meeting will be closed to invited representatives only and AE participants will be required, if necessary, to sign confidentiality agreements to cover the discussions on issues not in the public domain.

Companies unable to attend the June meeting and wishing to organise a meeting with AE representatives will be offered dates coinciding with either the AE Conference in October or one of the lunch debates in the European Parliament.

European Alzheimer’s Alliance

The European Alzheimer’s Alliance set up by Alzheimer Europe brings together 42 Members of the European Parliament from different political parties and countries. The Alliance will meet at least twice in 2011 to discuss the Parliament Resolution on Alzheimer’s disease and the state of development of the different EU initiatives on dementia and of national dementia strategies.

Throughout the year, Members of the European Parliament will be regularly updated on this through direct contacts via the Public Affairs Officer of Alzheimer Europe, as well as through regular e-mail updates and the magazine.

Conference Sponsorship

For its 2011 Annual Conference in Warsaw (6-8 October 2011), Alzheimer Europe chose the following conference themes:

• Avoiding mistakes in care
• Carers’ stories
• Day care centres – Innovative solutions
• Effective communication
• Family care versus institutional care
• Fundraising – Success stories
• How to recognise and cope with psychopathological symptoms in Alzheimer’s disease
• Legal systems and regulations – a review
• Occupational therapy
• People with dementia speak up
• Preventing isolation and loneliness of people with dementia and their carers
• Problems and dilemmas in end-of-life dementia
• Raising awareness – successful campaigns
• Sexuality and relationships
• Support groups for carers
• Support groups for people with dementia

The following sponsorship packages will be available. Silver sponsors of Alzheimer Europe will receive a discount of 25% on these packages and gold sponsors a discount of 50%.

Annex: AE Rules and regulations - Chapter X. Co-operation with the pharmaceutical industry and other sponsors

Article 33 – Sponsorship guidelines

The following guidelines are a first attempt to harmonise the relationship between European Alzheimer associations and the pharmaceutical industry.

1. AE welcomes the development of new anti-dementia drugs and the investment of the pharmaceutical industry in this field and will seek to establish close contacts with the relevant companies. It hopes to be kept informed of new developments in this sector.
2. In all dealings with the pharmaceutical industry, AE and its national organisations shall remain impartial and shall not endorse a particular manufacturer or a particular product.
3. Therefore AE and its national associations shall not enter into any agreement, which could threaten their non-profit status.
4. Information about members, donors or other confidential information about AE and its national associations shall remain the exclusive property of these and shall not be made available to any third party.
5. Information on drugs or clinical trials shall not be presented by AE or its national member associations unless it has been written by persons appointed by the organisations to do so.
6. AE and its national member associations are free to accept donations from pharmaceutical companies and other third parties. They will acknowledge such donations in the same way they acknowledge other donations by private persons.
7. When accepting sponsorship by pharmaceutical companies or other third parties, AE and its national member associations may acknowledge this sponsorship by appropriate means. Under no circumstances will this acknowledgement include an advertisement for a product.
8. Sponsorship does not entitle pharmaceutical companies and other third parties to determine the content of any publication or other information material produced by AE and its national members, nor does it entitle them to determine the programme or speakers at a conference or symposium organised by AE and its national members. At all times, AE and its members should have complete editorial and managerial control.
9. AE and its national member associations can lend their support for the development of information material or awareness campaigns by the pharmaceutical companies. Under no circumstances shall AE or its members give their support or logo for a campaign designed to advertise a product.
10. At all times, AE and its members will make sure that corporate support for their programs and materials cannot be interpreted as their endorsement of a business, company or product and they will take all necessary steps to avoid such appearance.
11. These guidelines constitute a minimal consensus between AE and its member organisations. They are binding on AE whereas the member organisations of AE have the right to adopt other Regulations not in conflict with the principles declared above for their dealings with the pharmaceutical industry and other third parties.
12. AE is bound by those guidelines and will not lend its support to events or publications of its member organisations or other interested parties that do not comply with them. The patronage or sponsorship of AE is therefore conditional on the acceptance of these guidelines by the applicant for sponsorship or patronage. AE will withdraw its support if in the course of a project or event, these guidelines are no longer respected.