Do You Know What Merck Did Last Summer? Drug Company Paid Experts $3.7 Million to Promote Drugs

Drug maker Merck & Co. admitted today that it paid $3.7 million over the summer to more than 1,000 doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals who gave speeches and did other work to promote the company’s medications.

Pharmaceutical companies have been under increasing fire from critics over the common practice of keeping medical professionals on the payroll while failing to make public how much the experts were paid for their work. In response to the public outcry, Merck and other drug companies have either already released details of payments they make to medical professionals for speaking and consulting work or are planning to do so.

From July through September, the company paid 1,078 speakers an average of $1,548 for a total of 2,493 speeches, according to the company’s disclosure. One expert was paid more than $22,000 and many received more than $10,000, according to an Associated Press article.

More Must be Done to Protect Patients

A Merck spokesman told the AP that the decision by the company to release a list of payments to doctors and others is meant to “shine a light” on Merck’s relationship with the medical community. We agree that patients deserve to know whether the author of a positive study or glowing medical journal article on the new Merck drug was actually paid by the company to write it. But is it enough for companies to disclose such financial conflicts of interest, or should Congress take stronger action to outlaw the arrangements altogether?

The massive influence the pharmaceutical industry wields over the United States medical community is a growing scandal that puts millions of patients at risk of serious injuries, adverse drug reactions, and even death. When drug companies and doctors put profit before patient wellbeing, more must be done to protect patients from back-room deals and payola to doctors for consulting work.

Other Drug Companies Also Opening Their Books

Merck is the second major drug manufacturer to post a listing of how much it paid for expert consulting and other work. In July, Eli Lilly & Co. posted an on-line list of payments it made to doctors and other medical professionals for giving speeches about company products or other work. GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Pfizer Inc. also have said they plan to do so soon.

Many critics question whether a doctor who is paid by a drug company will offer an impartial assessment of the drug. Or, as we suspect, do doctors on the drug company payroll feel an obligation to slant their work in favor of the drug or medical device? Does your doctor promote one drug company’s product over another simply because one company paid him thousands of dollars or sent him on a trip to Tahiti?

The system of drug companies paying doctors and other medical professionals for giving speeches and otherwise promoting products is a deep gash to the credibility of the drug industry and the medical profession. We wonder if disclosures such as Merck’s are enough to stem the bleeding.

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