Released: January 25, 2006

Distance sought between doctors and drug industry

Source: By Ceci Connolly, Washington Post

Declaring that the pervasive influence of drug industry money is distorting doctors’ treatment decisions and scientific findings, a prestigious panel of medical experts called on their colleagues yesterday to adopt far-reaching new conflict-of-interest policies.

In an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the group said that voluntary efforts to limit corporate inducements have failed, resulting in the overprescribing of some medications and the withholding of negative discoveries about others. Highly publicized cases involving the anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx, antidepressants for children and spinal implants made by Medtronic - all occurring while voluntary guidelines were in place - highlight the need for stricter measures, they said.

Proposal Highlights

The physicians panel called for new steps to sever ties between manufacturers and practitioners at academic medical centers. (Source: Journal of the American Medical Association):

• Ban gifts to physicians from drug and device makers, including meals and payment for travel and continuing education.
• Bar direct distribution of drug samples to physicians. Replace them with vouchers for low-income patients.
• Exclude physicians with financial relationships to manufacturers from committees overseeing preferrred drug lists.
• Ban physicians from speaking at manufacturers’ events or publishing articles ghost-written by industry employees.
• Post consulting and research contracts on a publicly available Web site.

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