Under the Influence - Doctors and Prescription Drug Firms

[Guest guest]

Under the Influence - Doctors and Prescription Drug Firms

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Today's news, both political and financial, is filled with tales of

greed and corruption. Vested interests ensure that earmarks litter important

legislation. The lust for a quick profit and lax regulation have led to bank

closures. Wall Street and Capitol Hill are now awash in finger-pointing by

consumers whose investments are worth a fraction of their previous value.

It should come as no surprise, then, that congressional hearings have

focused lately on drug manufacturers' conflicts of interest. Sen.

Grassley (R-IA), the ranking minority member of the Senate Finance

Committee, is leading an investigation into the financial relationships

between pharmaceutical companies and the scientists who research their

products.

Additionally, Sen. Grassley has pointedly asked questions of the FDA

regarding drug approval in the wake of concern that vested interests

compromise the safety of Americans who use these drugs. As you know, AAHF is

actively involved in a campaign to reform the FDA.

Drug companies spend $29.9 billion annually to promote prescription

drugs. Fourteen percent of that astronomical figure comprises

direct-to-consumer drug ads. The remaining 86%, or $25.7 billion, is spent

on influencing the prescribing habits of physicians. Studies from the

Kaiser Foundation indicate that a 10% increase in advertising is tied to a

1% increase in sales.

Sen. Grassley is now pressing the National Institutes of Health to get

tougher on universities that don't disclose financial ties to industry. He

raised particular concerns about Harvard, Stanford, the University of

Cincinnati, and the University of Texas, where researchers working on

NIH-funded studies are also on the payroll of drug companies.

The flack around this issue created a stir within NIH itself with the

revelation that NIH scientists had failed to acknowledge financial ties to

drug companies. And now twenty universities have been contacted by the

Senate Finance Committee regarding questions of potential conflict of

interest with drug companies.

According to author Dick in his book Outrage, 90% of continuing

medical education is paid for by prescription drug firms. Jerome Kassirer,

M.D., former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, speaks

passionately of his disdain for his colleagues who " become paid prostitutes

for drug companies. " His book On the Take offers facts and figures on how

the drug companies' dollars have tainted clinical practice.

And Abramson, M.D., in his book Overdosed America, chronicles his

personal decision to leave clinical practice to expose the vested interests

that have colored private practice, research, medical school education, and

medical journal publication. He shows how drug companies have been

instrumental in creating the " new normals for cholesterol, blood pressure,

and blood glucose " as well as creating " new diseases " like restless leg

syndrome and social anxiety disorder.

In response, Eli Lilly has announced that beginning next year it will

disclose payments of more than $500 to doctors for their roles as advisors

and for speaking at educational seminars. While some states already have

disclosure laws for payments from drug companies to doctors, none of them

require the disclosure of payments from medical device makers.

One of this nation's biggest medical device makers, Medtronic, is the

target of an investigation by Sen. Grassley regarding its spinal devices

unit's relationship with doctors who use its spinal repair implants. And a

lawsuit has been brought by a former Medtronic attorney alleging that

Medtronic gave surgeons a variety of incentives to use or prescribe its

products.

Conventional medicine shines in technology and in emergency care,

particularly for injuries. But more and more consumers would rather see an

integrative doctor if they are sick. AAHF supports physicians who risk their

medical license to bring the very best medicine to their patients. Our

mission is to ensure your health freedom and that of your physicians.