LAUSR

Independent charity patient assistance programs are funded by pharmaceutical companies to help eligible patients cover their out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs. Pharmaceutical companies are prohibited from advertising or distributing information about off-label uses of their products but commonly suggest off-label uses in their direct-to-consumer advertisements for certain drugs. 3 Independent charity patient assistance programs had been prohibited from offering financial assistance for off-label uses until 2014, when the US Department of Health and Human Services relaxed the guidelines to allow these programs to cover less expensive drugs for offlabel uses. The extent to which independent charity patient assistance programs have covered off-label uses of prescription drugs and the types of these covered drugs have not been examined.