Healthy Skepticism Library item: 11505

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Publication type: news

Stark K.
N.J. weighs requiring reporting doctors' gifts
The Philadelphia Inquirer 2007 Sep 19
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20070919_N_J__weighs_requiring_reporting_doctors_gifts.html

Full text:

It would join four states that already call for the tracking by pharmaceutical and medical-device firms.

New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram said she would convene a task force today to consider if the state should require drug firms and medical-device-makers to report gifts they give to physicians.

New Jersey has one of the nation’s largest concentrations of drug firms, serving as home base to Merck & Co. Inc., Johnson & Johnson, and many others.

Milgram, a career prosecutor and a registered Democrat, said: “I don’t want to prejudge the situation, but I do know we have had examples of wrongdoing.”

“I want to be confident that my doctor is prescribing the best drug for me, not something in his financial interest,” she said. “I think it’s an important public issue regardless of where companies are located.”

Among the panel’s 16 members, she noted, is Lisa Goldman, assistant general counsel at Pfizer Inc. Other members include Karen Ali, acting general counsel of the New Jersey Hospital Association, and New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services Commissioner Fred Jacobs.

Milgram said the meeting today would be private, but that the committee would likely hold a public meeting before it issues recommendations in about six months. “What financial incentives are there and what information is publicly available are two of the main questions we want to ask,” she said.

In a statement, Ken Johnson, senior vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), said there were already many safeguards in place. The voluntary PhRMA Code, he said, already calls all forms of entertainment, including competitive sporting events and games of golf, inappropriate. “The guidelines also say that only modest meals should be allowed, and gifts should not exceed $100 in value.”

Bills that call for reporting payments to doctors by pharmaceutical and medical-device firms have passed in four states – Vermont, Maine, Minnesota and West Virginia – and the District of Columbia.

U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) and Herb Kohl (D., Wis.) have introduced a bill to require makers of drugs, medical devices and biologics to disclose the value of what they give to doctors. The legislation would require the secretary of Health and Human Services to create a Web site and post payment information. Penalties would range up to $100,000 per violation.

In addition, New Jersey State Sens. Ellen Karcher (D., Mercer) and Joseph F. Vitale (D., Middlesex) have introduced Senate Bill 2660, requiring doctors to tell patients about money and gifts over $25 that they have accepted from pharmaceutical firms in the last year.