Doctors Have Conflict-Of-Interest

Several news stories reported on the ethical issue of doctors and researchers accepting large sums of money from drug companies for both research, and teaching about their drugs.  One such article from the June 26, 2008 issue of Business Week, titled, "Doctors Under the Influence?", started off by reporting that researchers who published an important antismoking research article in the journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, disclosed that they are paid by the manufacturers of smoking-cessation products for speaking and consulting.

Another story on the same subject of conflict-of-interest, titled, "Are Perks Compromising MD Ethics?" aired on June 26, 2008 on the CBS Evening News.  This story reported that according to a University of Quebec study, drug company payments to doctors go as high as $57 billion per year.  These payments include things such as consulting fees, speaking fees on drugs, and medical seminars on the benefits of drugs.

Lawmakers have begun to look at this issue. US Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, commented to CBS, about the practice of doctors or researchers accepting money from drug companies,  "If they are being paid, it ought to be reported." The senator is also looking at the money being paid to researchers from top schools such as Harvard, Stanford and the University of Cincinnati. 

In citing one case, where a Harvard researcher failed to report $1.6 million in fees from drug companies who were the makers of drugs his research eventually promoted, the Senator stated that payments to researchers should raise red flags, "Well, it raises a flag to me that they might have something to hide," he said. "It raises a flag that the university doesn't care."

Sen. Grassley has proposed legislation that would require drug companies to report any payment over $500 made to a physician. That information would then be posted on a government website for all to see.  In an e-mail to BusinessWeek, the Senator urged, "The public relies on the advice of doctors and leading researchers. The public has a right to know about financial relationships between those doctors and the drug companies who make the pharmaceuticals prescribed by doctors."

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