Money in Medicine Report
Thomas Sullivan
May 5, 2018 (Policy & Medicine) — In late November, a report was released that focused on money in medicine, and the top thirty drugs that were associated with pharmaceutical industry payments to Oregon doctors. Interestingly, the top thirty list did not include many drugs that are known to be household names. For example, the top three drugs – Bydureon, Invokana, and Toujeo – are prescribed for diabetes, a highly prevalent disease in America. Three others on the list are prescribed for multiple sclerosis, a debilitating condition that is incurable and can be hard to live with. Hysingla, an abuse-deterrent hydrocodone pill, is also high on the list.
According to the series, $2.6 billion in non-research payments were made by drug and device developers to U.S. teaching hospitals and physicians in 2015. In Oregon, 100 doctors collected $9 million in payments from industry.
This is interesting, in part because the media is always harping on the pharmaceutical industry for spending money and having “influence” on physicians. However, this article and the data show that the drugs (at least in Oregon) that are most associated with pharmaceutical industry payments tend to be drugs for diseases that are highly prevalent or diseases that are hard to beat. The author of the series also gives much time and attention to the physicians themselves, who help her (and the public) understand the benefits.
Doctors who receive the payments state that they are “being compensated for their time and expertise, or in several cases, the technology they devised to advance patient care.” They also “argue that safeguards are in place to prevent undue influence from industry, such as a prohibition on receiving royalties from your own practice or even region.”
Dr. L. Nelson Hopkins, a neurosurgeon and president of the Gates Vascular Institute at Buffalo General Medical Center, believes it is important for physicians and industry to have a good relationship, “To say that physicians shouldn’t work with industry is to say that innovation shouldn’t happen. If physicians weren’t working with industry to develop concepts and to advise industry on how it’s going in the marketplace, and working with industry to iterate the product to get better and better, then that technology would be stymied.”
Gerald Williams, Jr., both a practicing physician and the president of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, notes that it makes sense that many of his group’s members account for a large portion of the non-research compensation because their practice areas account for almost 40 percent of the total health care spending in the United States. Williams states that many orthopedic surgeons fund their own product and equipment innovations, and that even more are asked by device makers to lend their expertise in developing new tools and approaches to delivering care.
Dr. Bryan Mehlhaff, a Springfield urologist who makes presentations about cutting-edge prostate cancer drugs, sums it up quite well, “this is very FDA regulated. A lot of my patients know I’m a speaker and that I participate on advisory boards and ask if I’ve heard anything new. A lot of them like that I’m on top of new developments and on the cutting edge of what might be possible for them.”
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