Healthy Skepticism Library item: 14053

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Publication type: news

Key Lawmakers Push Bill to Provide Doctors With Unbiased Rx Data
FDA Week 2008 Aug 1
http://www.insidehealthpolicy.com/IHP_login.asp?reason=denied_empty&script_name=/secure/showdoc.asp&path_info=/secure/showdoc.asp&docnum=7312008_unbiased

Full text:

Influential Senate and House Democrats Thursday (July 31) introduced legislation that aims to provide doctors with unbiased information on prescription drugs. The legislation is part of a larger congressional effort to change the way the pharmaceutical industry interacts with doctors.

The federal “academic detailing” program sought by lawmakers would provide physicians and other prescribers with objective prescription drug information based on independent, scientific research, according to a press release from the Senate Special Committee On Aging.

Committee Chair Herb Kohl (D-WI), one of the bill’s main proponents, said the bill would allow doctors to avoid relying on the pharmaceutical industry for drug information, a practice he said is “fraught” with conflicts of interest. “By providing physicians with thorough, independent research on all the drugs available to them, we believe we can improve the quality of health care and reduce the cost of prescription drugs in America,” he said.