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How drug companies try to influence doctors

By Robert Farley, Times Staff Writer
In print: Sunday, April 13, 2008

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Gifts

Anything from branded pens and coffee mugs to expensive dinners and payment for travel to meetings.

Value: In direct marketing to physicians, industry spends an average $13,000 per physician, per year.

Ghostwriting

Pharmaceutical companies or their surrogates "ghostwrite'' medical journal articles, editorials and letters to the editor supporting a company's research or product. The signed "author" typically played no role in the research, writing or editing.

Value: One company paid physicians $1,000 per article.

Speakers bureaus

Physicians promote a drug through a series of speeches or presentations that are prepared or vetted by pharmaceutical companies.

Value: Various. One psychiatrist said he was paid $550 to $750 per talk; a Minnesota psychiatrist who sits on a Medicaid advisory panel received $350,000 in speaking fees over three years.

Drug samples

Brand-name drug samples distributed to physicians.

Value: In drug samples, the industry spends more than $18-billion a year.

Continuing medical education

Drug companies provide financial support to CME programs, which doctors must participate in to maintain their medical licenses. Companies often direct their marketing dollars to programs that demonstrate an increased use of their product.

Value: In 2005, the pharmaceutical industry funded 60 percent of the $2.25-billion spent on CME programs.

Consulting and research grants

The industry hires physicians as consultants or provides research grants to facilitate the discovery and development of new drugs. Such arrangements are often tied to marketing efforts rather than restricted to scientific activity. Consultants often receive honoraria for attending meetings, and paid travel and lodging at luxury resorts and hotels where meetings take place.

Value: Varies widely.

Source: The Prescription Project, which seeks to eliminate conflicts of interest caused by pharmaceutical marketing to physicians.