Amid a national debate over the influence of industry money on medical research and practice, two pharmaceutical giants say they will begin publicly reporting payments they make to outside doctors.
John C. Lechleiter, chief executive of Eli Lilly & Company, announced on Wednesday that starting next year it intended to post in an online database all its payments to doctors for speaking and consulting services. The postings will “likely include” the names of the doctors, or will provide some other identifying information about them, along with the reason for the payments, the company said.
In the wake of Lilly’s announcement, Merck & Company said later Wednesday that it would disclose speaking fees it pays to doctors, also beginning in 2009.
More at NYT
2 comments:
Some great news. The best part is that all of it is voluntary on the part of the pharma companies. Now, I don't see any reason, why the rest of the drugmakers shouldn't follow suit. Thanks.
Doubt if these or other pharma companies will fully disclose these funds they stated that they would recently. They will likely implement creative accounting instead.
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