Legislation targets drugmaker gifts, incentives to physicians

Publicly exposing financial ties to industry will make doctors think twice about propriety, advocates say.

By Kevin B. O'Reilly, AMNews staff. Nov. 19, 2007.

Thirteen states this year have seen legislative proposals aimed at limiting financial relationships between physicians and drugmakers. Most bills failed to pass, due to heavy pressure from pharmaceutical lobbyists, experts said, but new efforts are afoot.

The latest proposals include a Michigan bill that would make that state the second in the nation after Minnesota to place a limit -- $100 -- on the total value of gifts a drugmaker can give a physician in a year. Michigan and Massachusetts are considering so-called sunshine laws requiring drug companies to publicly disclose any gifts, payments, subsidies or incentives worth more than $25.

The bills proposed this year exempt drug samples and payments for clinical trials from reporting requirements or gift limits. In September, a bipartisan U.S. Senate measure was introduced that would list gifts of more than $25 in a public, national database.

The American Medical Association's ethical code says gifts from industry should be of insubstantial value and primarily benefit patients. The AMA has not taken a position on the congressional or state legislation.

Drugmakers "spend a ton of money on TV, and they spend a ton of money in the field pushing prescriptions," said Michigan Rep. Mike Simpson, who co-sponsored the gift legislation as part of a package aimed at containing health care costs. "We hold doctors in the public trust, and we want to make sure physicians are prescribing the best medicine based on what's in the patient's interest, not on what they are getting from the pharmaceutical industry."