Healthy Skepticism Library item: 15247

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Goldstein J.
Massachusetts Bans Industry Gifts to Docs
The Wall Street Journal Health Blog 2009 Mar 12
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/03/12/massachusetts-bans-industry-gifts-to-docs/

Full text:

More scrutiny for ties between doctors and the drug and device industries: Massachusetts has adopted a strict set of rules that bans most gifts and requires companies to report some payments to doctors.

While the industries themselves have been moving toward fewer gifts and more disclosure, the Massachusetts rules go further in some ways – for example, requiring that companies report payments of more than $50 for certain consulting and speaking gigs, the Boston Globe reports. Companies including Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline and Medtronic have all said they will start reporting payments to docs, but that reporting typically starts at a floor higher than $50.

“Massachusetts is now seen as the most unfriendly state in the nation toward industry,” the president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council told the Globe. “In these tough economic times, you don’t want to send a chilling message to an industry that’s a growth industry.”

All this action comes as Congress bats around a bill that would create national rules about what payments have to be reported. Industry has largely backed that bill, perhaps in part because it could supersede the emerging patchwork of rules that differ from state to state.

Here’s version of the proposed federal law that was introduced last year; the Massachusetts rules are explained on the Web site of the state’s Department of Public Health.