Doctors Pull In $3.5 Billion in 5 Months From Drug and Device Companies.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-30/drug-device-companies-paid-3-5-billion-to-u-s-doctors.html

U.S. doctors and teaching hospitals were paid $3.5 billion by drug and device makers over five months in 2013, according to the first comprehensive disclosure of the companies’ financial ties to the medical professionals that prescribe and use their products.

The payments, released yesterday by the U.S. government, are listed in two categories: money to fund research and payments to doctors for consulting and other non-research services. They cover everything from the royalties paid to hospitals to help develop products to fees provided to medical opinion leaders to speak at a dinner with colleagues.

Roche Holding AG (ROG)’s Genentech unit spent $135 million in non-research payments, the most of any company. Of that, 90 percent went to a Southern California hospital network for royalties, the company said. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY) led in research payments, with $329 million, which the company said was largely attributed to the value of experimental medicines used in studies. Consumer advocates said publicizing the data may lessen the chance that drugs or devices will be used based on how much a doctor or institution is paid.

The pay has “an insidious corrupting influence on the practice of medicine, research, the development of clinical guidelines and clinical practice,” said Michael Carome of Public Citizen, a Washington-based nonprofit watchdog group. “The reason companies pay physicians honoraria and give them gifts and consulting fees is ultimately to influence the prescribing practices.”

550,000 Doctors

The disclosures by the U.S. government cover 4.4 million payments to about 550,000 doctors and 1,360 teaching hospitals from August to December 2013. The companies were required to provide the information as part of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

While doctors are allowed to prescribe any treatment they think will help a patient, makers of drugs and medical devices can market products only for uses approved by the Food and Drug Administration. In some cases, companies have used their financial links to the medical community to get around that limitation, critics have said.

Some doctors were listed as receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the data. The device maker Medtronic Inc. (MDT), for instance, paid almost $3 million to one unidentified doctor, who was among six who individually received more than $500,000 over the five-month period.

Four of the doctors in the highly paid Medtronic group weren’t identified in the data. The Obama administration withheld the names of about 40 percent of medical professionals receiving payments due to difficulties in verifying the identity of the recipient. Medtronic, the world’s biggest maker of heart rhythm devices, paid a total of $30.1 million over the five months.

Influence on Doctors

Johnson & Johnson, which makes drugs and medical devices, gave doctors and hospitals $68 million for non-research expenses, second among all companies, through its Janssen Pharmaceuticals and DePuy Synthes Sales units.

The payments reflect J&J’s “considerable role” as the world’s largest and most comprehensive health-care company, said Amy Jo Meyer, a spokeswoman for the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company. The payments largely related to the development of new surgical devices, medicines and tests to improve health care and patients’ lives, she said.

Prescription pills go through an automated packaging machine.