Despite intensive last-minute lobbying by pharmaceutical and medical device makers, Deval Patrick, governor of the US state of Massachusetts, has signed into law a bill requiring them to report to the state Department of Public Health any payment or gift of over $50 which they make to healthcare professionals.
Such gifts would be publicly reported on the state’s web site, under the law, which also calls for the state to develop an industry code of conduct, imposing $5,000 fines for every violation.
The measure, which is included in an omnibus bill targeting health care quality and costs, “will set a marketing code of conduct to help ensure health care providers make choices about prescription drugs and medical devices for their patients based on therapeutic benefits and cost-effectiveness,” said Gov Patrick. He was “confident,” he added, that the DPH “will safeguard the confidentiality of companies’ trade secrets and proprietary information and protect against roadblocks to medical research or the education of health care providers.”
"Biased marketing and financial inducements are destructive to the sacred doctor-patient relationship,” added Senator Mark Montigny, who had tried to make Massachusetts the first US state to ban gift-giving between sales reps and health care professionals altogether. His bid to criminalise such gifts was passed by the state Senate but the House, which would support restrictions only, prevailed in the final version of bill S 2863, which is entitled An Act to Promote Cost Containment, Transparency and Efficiency in the Delivery of Quality Health Care.
“Massachusetts is known around the world for cutting-edge, top-notch healthcare and medical research. We are leading the way, and this legislation allows us to continue that leadership, while providing the best health care possible for the people of the Commonwealth,” said Senate President Therese Murray, who also led the campaign to outlaw gift-giving.PhRMA warns of development hold-upHowever, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America has warned that the restrictions could hold up the development of important new medicines, as it would deter healthcare professionals in Massachusetts’ many academic health centres from working with pharmaceutical research companies.
The industry group is also unhappy with the fact that the legislation empowers the DPH to establish regulations which would be at least as stringent as the new PhRMA Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals, which the group issued in July as part “of an ongoing effort to ensure that pharmaceutical marketing practices comply with the highest ethical standards.”PhRMA was one of the signatories of a full-page ad published in the Boston Globe newspaper a few days before Gov Patrick was due to sign the bill. The ad claimed that Bill S 2863 was being promoted by “a few special interest groups” which aimed to “demonise” the industry, and the thousands of professionals working in it including doctors, “for being successful.”
Passage of the bill could also undermine the $1 billion Massachusetts Life Science Strategy, which Gov Patrick unveiled in 2007 with the aim of securing Massachusetts’ “standing as the epicenter of the life sciences industry,” said the ad, which was signed not only by PhRMA but also by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO – which named Mr Patrick its Governor of the Year in June), the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MBC), the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, Massachusetts’ High Technology Council and the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce.
The ad went on to warn that Gov Patrick’s signing of the bill would have a "direct and immediate devastating impact" on the lives of thousands of people across the state because it would significantly curtail, if not end altogether, the availability of “last-hope” clinical trials in Massachusetts. “The reason – the legislation requires the companies that develop these new treatment options to disclose, to their competitors, the products and areas of research in which they are involved,” it said.
The signatories to the newspaper ad had preceded it with a lobbying blitz which included a letter from the MBC to Gov Patrick, warning him that news of Massachusetts' plan for a “toughest-in-the-nation policy” on gift-giving “has already created negative buzz in the life sciences industry."
- The states of Vermont and Minnesota also have laws which put monetary limits on such gifts. In late April, the Association of American Medical Colleges executive council called on medical schools to reject gifts, travel and other services from pharmaceutical companies, in order to avoid conflicts of interest.
By Lynne Taylor
PharmaTimes
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