Senators to Push for Registry of Drug Makers’ Gifts to Doctors

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Senators to Push for Registry of Drug Makers' Gifts to Doctors

By GARDINER HARRIS

Published: June 28, 2007

WASHINGTON, June 27 — In the midst of a Senate hearing about the money

and gifts that drug makers routinely provide to doctors, Senator

McCaskill mentioned that she had a brother who runs a restaurant.

" And he said that the most lucrative part of his business was the

private room that is used mostly by drug companies " to entertain

doctors, said Ms. McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri. " He said that you

wouldn't believe how much expensive wine these guys buy. " The tab

often totals thousands of dollars, she said later.

Marjorie , senior assistant general counsel for the

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, assured Ms.

McCaskill that major drug makers no longer offer doctors expensive

dinners. The industry's code of ethics mandates that free meals be

modest — pizza, for instance, Ms. said.

" I would, with all due respect, suggest that there has been a change

in your brother's restaurant in recent years, " she said.

Ms. McCaskill pressed, " Are they allowed to buy alcohol? "

Ms. responded, " Our code does not go into that level of detail. "

The senator said, " So they can. " The hearing did not go well for the

drug industry. At its end, Ms. McCaskill and Senator Herb Kohl, a

Wisconsin Democrat who is chairman of the Special Committee on Aging,

said they would push for legislation that would create a national

registry of gifts and payments to doctors by the makers of drugs and

medical devices.

Ms. McCaskill said the Senate was in the process of adopting ethics

legislation that would bar senators from accepting meals from

lobbyists. And any gifts or payments to senators must be recorded, she

said.

" And if it's good for Congress, " she said later in an interview, " it's

good for the medical profession in terms of cleaning up all this

lobbying — because that's what it is. "

Mr. Kohl said that if the industry's gifts and payments to doctors

were appropriate, no one should object to making them public. He said

he was concerned that the payments and gifts have " an impact on the

quality and cost of medical treatments. "

Drug makers continue to underwrite expensive meals and weekend

getaways for doctors, according to dozens of interviews with doctors.

For instance, in a letter dated Dec. 4, AstraZeneca, a London company,

invited doctors to attend a weekend training session in February at

the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando, Fla., to learn how to give

marketing lectures for Symbicort, an asthma medicine. In addition to

paying doctors' flight, car and hotel costs, AstraZeneca offered a

$2,700 stipend, according to an invitation letter.

Michele Meeker, a spokeswoman for AstraZeneca, said that the Florida

event had complied with all industry ethics guidelines and that the

stipend was " fair market value for their time. "

Asked whether the drug industry would support a mandatory national

registry of payments and gifts to doctors, Ms. told the

committee that similar state efforts had become enmeshed in difficult

details — like deciding whether free drug samples should be classified

as gifts.

" There are those kinds of complexities that would make a registry very

difficult, " she said.

After the hearing, Ms. 's trade association released a statement

criticizing the state registries, saying they " disarm doctors by

inhibiting access to critical scientific information about the

benefits and risks of treatment options that help patients win their

battle against disease. "

The laws have led to some embarrassing disclosures: that some doctors

earn hundreds of thousands of dollars from drug makers, that doctors

who are paid by drug makers tend to prescribe more of their drugs, and

that some doctors who have been hired to perform clinical trials have

serious medical disciplinary records.

A New York Times/CBS News poll in February found that respondents

overwhelmingly disapproved of doctors' accepting payments from drug

makers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/28/washington/28doctors.html?_r=1 & oref=slogin