Drug maker plans to disclose payments to doctors

How many physicians will allow themseves to be a "hired gun" for the right price? It is very disturbing to the general public and erodes their confidence in the profession in general. This needs to stop or be made public!

Drug maker plans to disclose payments to doctors. Yes this will be the norm. LLy press.  As a big pharma sales manager for 25 years, and for many majors, I have witnessed the dynamics of this topic. I have managed budgets from inception of compensation , gifts, perks, and other issues for physicians and for pharma reps. I have invaluable insight on this topic.

    Congratulations to Eli Lily and Co. for beginning a new trend in disclosing payments of over $500 to physicians in the United States. For as long back as the records go, drug companies have paid physicians and surgeons for speaking engagements, professional advice, and many other services. This financial disclosure, by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lily and Co., will...

If this becomes the norm, we can assume the number of payments will decrease as pharmaceutical and device comapnies are more circumspect about where they spend disclosed cash.  It will be easy for watchdogs to match usage and prescribing patterns to payments, which the industry will avoid. The conference business, which many physicians are paid to speak at, is feeling the effects of cutbacks...

Lilly plans on disclosing the amounts of money it is paying to individual doctors for consulting.  Other companies will begin to follow suit.  This will limit how much money physicians will accept from drug companies.

They've promised only to disclose payments OVER $500.00, so they can pay people 499.99 multiple times and never report!

This is basically a "sleeves off the vest" move that is a defense against inevitable federal legislative requirements that will be coming in the near term. While the first mover advantage here is questionable, other pharmaceutical companies will have to follow.