A commercial interest is “any entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients.” (The ACCME does not consider providers of clinical service directly to patients to be commercial interests – unless the provider of clinical service is owned, or controlled by, an ACCME-defined commercial interest.)
Commercial support is simply the financial, or in-kind, contributions given by a commercial interest, which is used to pay all or part of the costs of a CME activity.