Doctors on Drugs

DOCTORS ON DRUGS Why Pharmaceutical Companies Are Paying Off Our Doctors One of the largest industries in the world, big pharmaceutical companies spend billions on advertising and marketing every year- usually much more than they spend on research and development. What most don't know is that they're spending millions on persuading doctors to push their products- and our doctors are being swayed. The State of BIG PHARMACEUTICALS Drugs sales in 2010: Apples Revenue: $300 $65 BILLION BILLION Wholesale Drug Price Brand-name drug prices have been rising more than 8% per year. Annual change +8.7% +8 +6 +4 +2 *04 *05 *06 *07 *08 *09 THE FACTS Between 2009 and 2010 -7. drug companies DRUG CO. 17,000 paid doctors. 380 $100,000 received over each. All I paid for speaking engagements and consultations and only paid for research. PAYMENTS TO DOCTORS Since 2009: 144.1M 96.4M 22.8M 19.8M 10.6M 9.4M Johnson Merck Eli Lilly Pfizer GlaxoSmithKline AstraZeneca & Johnson & Co. WHO ARE THESE DOCTORS? 250 had sanctions against them for: Wrongly Providing Having sex with patients prescribing drugs poor care 45 40 20 who earned $100k or received FDA warnings had two or more more have no board certification in any for research misconduct malpractice or have criminal records. settlements. specialty. Some are in denial.. Dr. Samuel Dagogo-Jack Paid $257,000 between 09-'10. "If you actually prorate that by the hours put in, it is barely more than minimum wage." In reality: you'd need to work 24/7 at $7.25 an hour for over 4 years to earn that much Others are of questionable credibility. Dr. Firhaad Ismail Top earner in database at $303,558. Hasn't published in 20 years. Current place of employment unknown. Others are criminals... Dr. Donald Ray Taylor Earned nearly $200,000 between 09-'10. Fired in 2004 for giving female patients gynecological exams without cause and expos- ing women's breasts during exams. 6 years later, Cephalon's 3rd highest paid doctor (out of nearly 1000.) But it's not just sketchy doctors: In 2009, 8 out of 10 doctors admitted to accepting free samples, gifts, or payments from drug companies Pushing Doctors to PRESCRIBE DANGEROUSLY From 2007-2010, Drug companies have been forced to pay $7B in lawsuits for paying doctors to push "off-label," or unapproved, uses of their drugs. Pfizer Paid $2.3B in fines. The biggest criminal fine in US history. Illegally promoted various drugs Paid $425M in fines. Cephalon Sold misbranded drugs. Paid doctors for speeches they didn't make or that no one attended. Paid $520M in fines. AstraZeneca Paid doctors who prescribed off-label antipsychotics to children. Paid $600M in fines. Maker of Botox rewarded its "top injectors." ALLERGAN Paid 200 doctors $1,500 each to listen to presentations at oceanfront resort. Paid $313M in fines. Forest Laboratories, Inc. Paid doctors $1000 each to let agents observe them. Agents persuaded doctors to prescribe drugs and made reports about prescription trending and growth. WHAT YOU CAN DO to get informed ProPublica offers a national database that lets you search for your doctor and see if they have received payments from drug companies. Generic drugs now constitute % of the market, and this is a huge problem for Big Pharma, whose push on doctors is going to be bigger than ever. By 2013, health care reform laws will force all pharmaceutical companies to disclose their payments to doctors. But transparency alone is not enough: studies show that doctors who disclose their payments are more likely to give biased information, and patients are more likely to believe them. Investigating your doctor and drug options is critically important - and it's all up to you. Created by: www.MedicalBillingandCoding.org REFERENCES: http://projects.propublica.org/docdollars http://www.propublica.org/article/dollars-to-doctors-physician-disciplinary-records http://www.propublica. cle/lawsuits-say-pharma-illegally-paid-doctors-to-push-their-drugs http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/news/2011/04/19/pharmaceutical-sales-top-300-billion.html http://investor.apple.com/results.cfm http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/business/16drugprices.html?_r=2&pagewanted=2&th&emc=th http://health.usnews.com/health-news/managing-your- healthcare/healthcare/articles/2010/11/09/health-buzz-doctors-cut-some-ties-with-drug-companies http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/05/16/135538006/3-in-4-prescriptions-are-now-for-generic-drugs %24