« A Beautiful Health Hazard at the Tate Modern | Main | Stress in the Pit: Doctors Recommend a Month of Rest for Muti »
Tuesday
Oct192010

Dr. Money

The website ProPublica compiled a database of the top docs paid by pharmaceutical companies to "consult" on their drugs, and its fascinating to peruse. Paying for prescribing is illegal, but drug companies can pay fees for "speaking engagements" and other consulting work. The information came to light after a series of whistle-blower lawsuits forced seven major companies (including Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Merck and Johnson & Johnson) to disclose the details of the Rx-booty. Over the past year drug companies have payed nearly $7 billion for settlements in the cases.

Federal prosecutors have made headway in unraveling the dollars that bind docs to drug companies. In documents, one drug sales-rep said drug companies rigorously tracked whether or not their payments to physicians were worthwhile. In another lawsuit, involving Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, that's still ongoing, a former sales rep alleged, “Wyeth management was able to exclude speakers who did not promote Rapamune [used to prevent kidney-transplant rejection], and reward those who did so with repeated speaking engagements and resulting honoraria,” according to an amended complaint. Yet another lawsuit (involving Cephalon) alleges doctors were dropped from speaking engagements for not writing enough off-label prescriptions for the narcotic lollipop, Actiq.

Perhaps if insurance companies payed doctors decently this wouldn't be happening. In any case, it sure sounds like paying for prescriptions to us.

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>