News

National Public Radio (NPR) has joined the fray against drug company payouts to doctors and psychiatrists forwarding their ineffective and often fatal “wonder” drugs this week. In an NPR program on Sunday; Shining Some Light Between Doctors And Drugmakers, they noted that pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars on marketing every year, and a big chunk of it goes directly to the doctors who prescribe their products to patients.

Several states have decided to clamp down on these practices, requiring drug companies to disclose all gifts or payments to doctors.

Citing a recent report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, NPR noted the obvious, that acceptance of free meals, gifts and cash payments influences the prescribing practices of physicians and health care providers, and often leads to the prescription of a particular drug that doesn't have the same outcomes or beneficial effects on the patient that another drug might have.

The Vermont Legislature recently passed the strictest bill to date and it is expected to become law next month. Vermont state Sen. Peter Shumlin, who sponsored the bill, says the state is trying to take a leadership role in what he calls a national problem.

Just in the state of Vermont, with its relatively small population of 600,000-plus citizens, the drug industry spent almost $3 million last year, Shumlin says. "So you can imagine if the problem is that large in Vermont, they're spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars undertaking this practice in states like California and New York."

The state wants to ensure that Vermont's consumers know exactly how much their doctor has profited from the drugs they prescribe and where the money came from. "We think the best way is pure transparency," Shumlin says.

A Federal Bill In The Works

In Congress, Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley is co-sponsoring a bill like Vermont's. Grassley emphasizes that the goal of the bill is similar to Vermont's: transparency.

The federal government is a huge purchaser of health care services and products, Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley says, and the bill intends to protect those federal consumers as well as extend the same protection to the private sector.

The federal bill wants disclosure of any and all transactions above $100. "If you go to your local doctor," Grassley says, "you ought to know if he's giving a lecture at some pharmaceutical seminar and got paid for doing it. "If he's subscribing to that company's product and saying you should take it, you ought to know that," he says. "You make the choice as the consumer.

To see full text or listen to the broadcast at the following URL: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105077020

We predicted that the drug company payola stories would have legs (continue to run), we are quite pleased that mainstream media such as NPR, The New York Times, The LA Times and CNN, amongst many others also see this as a story that will not go away until the situation is fully exposed and cleaned up.