A Melbourne, Australia, cancer specialist has blown the whistle on drug companies' widespread showering of medical professionals, with gratuitous hospitality, with free business class travel to international cities, stays in top hotels and fine dining in elite restaurants regularly doled out.
Oncologist Ian Haines' affidavit lodged in the Federal Court in Sydney last week alleges drug company relationships are compromising medical specialists' professional independence, and provides a rare insight into how the pharmaceutical industry has co-opted doctors' decision-making.
Dr Haines says he accepted a typical sponsorship offer from the drug company Novartis of business class travel worth $10,000 in June 2004, plus five days' accommodation at the New Orleans Hampton Inn, worth $2000, and lunch and dinner each day and excursions around the city, valued at $1000.
That's a total of $13,000 given freely, even though he was only an audience member at the Novartis-sponsored conference, not a speaker.
This year, Dr Haines initially accepted separate offers from Roche of free trips to Amsterdam and Valencia, which he then declined because he "had become increasingly concerned that I was compromising my independence and integrity by accepting sponsorship to attend this type of meeting".
Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Novartis have all offered Dr Haines invitations to weekends around Australia over the past six months, offering free air fares, accommodation and food. Dr Haines refuses such invitations, which come at a rate of at least one a week, because they are "predominantly a marketing exercise".
Until 1999, Dr Haines says, cancer doctors from across Melbourne would meet among themselves on a Saturday to discuss their field. But since then, drug companies have commandeered these meetings and turned them into lavish dinners.
Now, at such meetings, Dr Haines "seldom" hears an oncologist express an opinion contrary to the interests of the sponsoring pharmaceutical company.In his affidavit, he attacks the drug companies for preventing "open and honest discussion".
The pharmaceutical industry body Medicines Australia is fighting efforts by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to force greater transparency of drug company hospitality.Among the ACCC's demands is that Medicines Australia monitor and publish regularly data from all drug companies' hospitality.
Dr Haines' affidavit was tendered on behalf of the ACCC.Medicines Australia last week argued to the Australian Competition Tribunal that the industry's self-regulating code of conduct, dating back to 1960, was effective because rival drug companies regularly reported breaches, and said that once hospitality data was published it would be "fodder for sensational reporting" in the media.
Instead of publishing the data, Medicines Australia argued it should appoint an auditor to oversee company records on hospitality, but which would stay in company vaults.
But the tribunal's deputy president, Justice Robert French, told the court that, at present, while competitors might be able to monitor each other's misleading advertising claims, when it comes to drug companies "paying too much for dinner at the Flower Drum restaurant", there might exist a tacit understanding between companies of "let's not stir the pot because we all do it".
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2 comments:
This is beautiful. Hopefully something will come out of it, positive in terms of hiting the big pharma in Australia and everywhere. Novartis is one of the worse offenders and even though there have been internal whistle blowings on the misconduct nothing has been done except cover up, and invention of new ways of doing it.The trips, dinners, weekends and so on are standard stuff. There are many other unethical/llegal practices that we may naver find out unles someone like this good doc. comes forward.
As for the industry regulatory bodies, like Medicine Australia, forget about it. They are nothnig but apologists and cover-ups for the industry and they would do nothing to hurt anyone in the "club". Same thing for the big pharma companies, they would hardly report on one another. If it does happen it is one small thing they usually agree on just to show that "the system" works, for tham that is.
Of course, there are countless "bad" doctors who would not report these things, continue to milk the system, for it is very seductive and adictive.
Perhaps the biggest "crime" of the big pharma is that they corrupted one of our most important elements in the health care system, OUR DOCTORS.
Hopefully this kind of whistle blowing will trigger a tide, that will spread around the globe. The only thing is, this being done down-under one wonders if the tide can travel up-over. Let see is some of our docs in the norther parts, US, Canada, Europe, for Novartis and others are everywhere, follow this example, the tide does travel everywhere.
Will be watching you docs, only you can stop this and clean up your ranks.
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