Healthy Skepticism Library item: 15458

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

Rubenstein S.
Eli Lilly Tops List of Drug-Company Pay to Vermont Docs
The Wall Street Journal Blog 2009 Apr 16
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/04/16/eli-lilly-tops-list-of-drug-company-pay-to-vermont-docs/

Full text:

Eli Lilly’s spending topped Vermont’s list of drug-company payments to health professionals in the 2008 fiscal year, says a report out from the state’s attorney general. Psychiatrists received the most pay from the industry out of any specialty, continuing a theme.

The annual report, made possible by Vermont’s drug-marketing disclosure law, tallies up compensation including consulting and speaker fees, travel expenses, gifts and food to doctors, hospitals, universities and other prescribers. Items exempt from disclosure include free samples, payments for clinical trials and gifts of less than $25 in value.

Some 78 drug makers reported spending a total of $2,935,248. The top five givers, in rank order, were Lilly, Pfizer, Novartis, Merck and Forest Pharmaceuticals.

The top five drugs on which marketing money was spent:

Rank Drug Use Maker
1 Strattera ADHD Eli Lilly
2 Cymbalta Depression, Neuropathic Pain, Anxiety Disorder Eli Lilly
3 Exelon Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Novartis
4 Januvia Diabetes Merck
5 Lexapro Depression, Anxiety Disorder Forest
Top five specialties receiving drug-marketing money:

Rank Specialty Total Received Average per recipient
1 Psychiatry $479,306.19 $43,573.29
2 Internal Medicine $332,880.14 $14,473.05
3 Neurology $185,007.43 $23,125.93
4 Endocrinology/Diabetes/Metabolism $156,832.36 $52,277.45
5 Ionizing Radiation Privileges $111,326.98 $12,369.66
In a written statement, Lilly spokesman Edward Sagebiel called state payment-disclosure laws “ambiguous,” for instance failing to “distinguish between an education or practice-related item expense and compensation for professional services.” As a result, he said, “these reports have been used by our critics to misconstrue the value of interactions between our marketing representatives and physicians.”

Sagebiel said he couldn’t comment on other companies’ practices, but that Lilly errs “on the side of reporting everything. This may explain why our numbers are higher than others.”

Drug trade group PhRMA told the Associated Press that much of the money is spent on educating doctors on when to prescribe certain medications.