Pharma's Fees
Nov 19 2007
Welcome to the Future
With concerns mounting about the money drug companies pay doctors for speaking engagements and research, the Senate is considering a bill to track and publish the payments. The issue: that the fees may influence physicians' research results and decisions about which medicines to prescribe. Here, a look at the sums companies paid last year in Minnesota, the only state that currently releases such data.
Makes: Ciprodex eardrops, Patanol eyedrops
Total payments: $723,446 to 28 doctors
Biggest payout: $120,000 to Howard Brockman, who conducted research on allergic conjunctivitis for Alcon in 2006. Brockman's website lists Alcon Research as a source of funding.
Comment: Alcon says disclosure laws won't affect the conduct of its clinical trials.
Makes: Crestor, Nexium
Total payments: $1.43 million to 111 doctors
Biggest payout: $149,344 to Stephen Olson, who is overseeing a trial that includes AstraZeneca's Seroquel, a schizophrenia drug.
Comment: The doctor says the money went to the hospital, not to him personally.
Makes: Cialis, Prozac
Total payments: $2.82 million to 106 doctors
Biggest payout: $293,712 to Alex Adjei, who chaired trials of two cancer drugs at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester.
Comment: Adjei says the fee went to a cancer-research group based at the clinic, not to him personally.
Makes: Paxil, Zantac
Total payments: $1.23 million to 148 doctors
Biggest payout: $150,752 to Todd Mahr, a pediatric allergist. Mahr worked on a 2002 clinical trial of GSK's anti-asthma drug, Advair Diskus, and co-authored a 2006 paper that recommended Advair-style inhalers; footnotes in the paper refer readers to GSK's website.
Comment: GSK and Mahr did not return calls.
OraPharma
Makes: Arestin, Impede
Total payments: $657,894 to 2 doctors
Biggest payout: $617,394 to Gary Jernberg, who patented the periodontal drug Arestin and licensed it to OraPharma, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.
Comment: Jernberg and Johnson & Johnson say the money covers royalty payments for Arestin.
Makes: Lipitor, Viagra
Total payments: $1.34 million to 165 doctors
Biggest payout: $191,973 to Todd Hess, who speaks on pain management at a variety of Pfizer-sponsored conferences.
Comment: Hess says he doesn't advocate specific drugs in his speeches.
Makes: Allegra, Ambien
Total payments: $959,488 to 80 doctors
Biggest payout: $110,000 to Patrick Johnston, who chaired a study for a trial of Sanofi-Aventis' colorectal-cancer drug Eloxatin.
Comment: Sanofi-Aventis and Johnston did not return calls.
