RxP Weekly Reader
Vermont docs got $2.9 million from drugmakers in ’08
Drug companies spent $2.9 million on payments to health care professionals, hospitals, universities and clinics in Vermont last year, according to a report released by the Vermont Attorney General’s office Wednesday. Payments related to drugs to treat depression and ADHD fell off as a proportion of total marketing payments, while those to promote diabetes and hypertension drugs increased.
The state law that requires companies to disclose payments to health care providers allows the companies to designate payments as trade secrets, effectively hiding the details of those payments from the public. Payments designated as trade secrets jumped from 72% to 83% of the value of all reported payments between FY 2007 and FY 2008. However, the proportion of all disclosed information fields declared trade secrets – the details of which may not be shared with the public – jumped from 41% to 74% between FY 2007 and FY 2008. A bill pending in the Vermont Legislature would eliminate the trade secret exemption, similar to laws in Minnesota and Massachusetts.
More from the Associated Press and the WSJ Health Blog.
Googleable compliance
And today the New York Times has this follow-up about how drug companies are changing tack to respond to FDA warning letters that charged companies were not providing sufficient risk-disclosure information on Google search ads, and that the ads were to be pulled down.
The companies say that the 95-word limit on the ads makes it impossible to disclosure the info the FDA says that they must, and are now using generic-sounding links with redirects to the brand-name page. According to the Times, Google “will not let any advertiser except for pharmaceutical companies use this kind of redirecting link.”
NYC detailers pound pavement for public health causes
Earlier this week, the Times reported that New York City is using academic detailing to get out the word on six different public health campaigns, from everything to domestic violence prevention to flu vaccines. A growing number of states and regions have started to use the method, which sends trained health professionals into doctors’ offices with unbiased information about drugs in the same way pharma reps make office calls. Congress is considering a bill now, the Independent Drug Education and Outreach Act, that would provide resources for states and medical centers to start academic detailing programs of their own.
Psaty on COI, clinical trial bias
And from way back last weekend, a good how-can-you-tell story in The Macon Daily on medical conflicts of interest. Drug safety expert Dr. Bruce Psaty, who takes no money from the pharmaceutical industry, told the paper that in the absence of a clinical trials system funded entirely by the public, there are some flags people can look for in trials that may point to clinical bias.
“Was the question a good question? Did they set the study up right? Did they use the weakest possible comparator to make a drug look good in a trial?” he said. Psaty spoke about the FDA at the Prescription Project conference last year.
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
[...] View original post here: RxP Weekly Reader [...]
April 24th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
In response to the vexing sales pitches regarding drugs promoted by lucrative pharmaceutical companies and their representatives who share information that typically is either embellished or fabricated, the concept of what is known in the U.S. as academic detailing was born, by Dr. J. Avorn, about 25 years ago.
Yet the implementation of this idea did not occur until recently.
Dr. Avorn, who also authored, “Powerful Medicines” in 2005, developed this concept due to the absurdness of how drugs were being detailed presently.
This was being done by over-populated sales forces of huge pharmaceutical corporations that largely and historically have failed to provide any useful information that was authentic and beneficial for health care providers and their patients.
The first academic detailing program began through the Department of Aging of Pennsylvania in 2005 in an effort to save the state’s PACE program. The PACE program helped elderly patients with funds to receive medication they need to maintain or restore their health. The program is called The Independent Drug Information Services.
The members share objective information related to the use of pharmaceuticals that is evidence-based.
Since then, a bill was presented to the U.S. Legislature in the Spring of 2008. Called, “The Independent Drug Education and Outreach Act (IDEA Act), the passage of this bill would allow for academic detailing programs to be federally funded throughout the United States.
Other advocates for Academic Detailing programs include the following sites:
http://www.prescriptionproject.org
http://www.ahrq.gov
The National Coalition for Appropriate Prescribing.
Good Health Systems- Managed Care HMO that offers academic detailing to at least 8 states that are their clients.
http://www.policychoices.org- Addresses the several benefits of academic detailing.
http://www.plosjournals.org- Offers a very objective analysis about the benefits of academic detailing.
http://www.rxfacts.org- Offers a complete description and purpose of academic detailing.
Dan Abshear