Glaxo Slashes Funding for Doctor-Educational Programs; Is More Change Needed?

In a move seen as an effort to distance itself from the ongoing controversy over drug company financial support of medical research, GlaxoSmithKline PLC said today it plans to reduce the amount of money it pays to support physician education programs.

Glaxo officials said the British company – the world’s fourth-largest drug maker — now plans to focus on getting information from independent educational programs that provide more balanced information on new drugs and medical techniques.

Drug companies have been under increased scrutiny recently for financially supporting physician educational programs and other common industry practices. The thinking is that drug companies are trying to effectively pay off physicians and medical researchers to reach favorable findings on new drugs and medical devices. Patients unaware of the back-room arrangement think they are getting the doctor’s impartial opinion on the safety or efficacy of a drug when that may not be the case.

Flashy Physician Educational Seminars Targeted

Glaxo and other drug companies have gradually been scaling back on several long-standing marketing practices, including paying for physician educational programs that are held at exotic beachfront resort hotels and other ritzy locales. Doctors are flown in, showered with free rounds of golf and other perks, and told about the drug company’s new products. By no surprise, the doctors return to their offices to tell patients about the exciting new company products.

At these seminars, the purported benefits of the new drug are highlighted and the serious side effects are often glossed over or left out entirely. In some cases, drug companies have paid respected doctors and researchers to sign off on ghost-written articles penned by someone else and published in medical journals.

Glaxo Announces Changes

Glaxo said it now will end funding for educational programs run by commercial medical education and communication companies. The company will now sponsor only programs given by national professional medical associations or teaching hospitals and their affiliates, who must seek grants from the company and be accredited, according to an Associated Press report on the announcement.

The grants for such seminars that Glaxo approves will be posted a company Web site, www.us-gsk.com, officials said. Also, later this year, Glaxo will begin making public how much the company pays to doctors and other health professionals for speaking at company meetings, for consulting services, and similar professional services.

“This is one more step in our efforts to be more transparent in the way we operate our business and interact with health care providers,” Deirdre Connolly, Glaxo’s president of North American Pharmaceuticals, said in a statement, according to the AP.

Other Drug Companies Following Suit

Glaxo is just the latest major drug company to announce self-policing measures in how it financially supports medical research.

Pfizer Inc. recently announced it would soon start disclosing all payments of $500 or more each year to doctors and others who prescribe drugs for consulting work and other chores. Merck & Co. and Eli Lilly & Co. announced similar plans to make public how much money the companies are shelling out to doctors to work on the company payrolls.

No related posts.