J&J Pays Docs Millions

Speaking and consulting gigs for drug companies can be lucrative for doctors.

Birmingham, Alabama, psychiatrist James E. Parker was paid more than $21,000 in speaking fees between January and March by a Johnson & Johnson company that sells mental health drugs.

Patricia Quinn, a retired Washington, D.C., physician and expert on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, received more than $26,00 in the same period for consulting and speaking fees paid by a J&J company that markets Concerta, a leading drug for the condition.

The payments are part of just-released disclosures by J&J, which is following Pfizer Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline Plc in making public the amounts of money it pays physicians for speaking, consulting and conducting clinical trials.

Unlike other drug companies, J&J didn’t aggregate the total payments but the Wall Street Journal tallied the sum to be around $2.85 million in payments in the first quarter. J&J has a large medical device division and it pledges to divulge doctor payments for that business by next year. In three years, drug and device companies will be required to report such payments to the government as part of the new health reform law.

The financial relationships between doctors and health products companies are being scrutinized more closely by critics, Congress and the Justice Department. Pfizer’s decision to reveal its payments wasn’t voluntary. It agreed to do so as part of a $2.3 billion fraud settlement with the government. The company was accused to pushing docs to prescribe medicines for unapproved uses.

But Quinn sees a value in drug company-sponsored events. She’s been studying attention deficit in children and adults for more than three decades. And while she speaks about the benefits of Concerta, she doesn’t prescribe medicines anymore. She does talk to other doctors through teleconferences and live speaking engagements but she insists the discussions relate to her knowledge of the condition.

“I’m paid for my expertise. I’m not a salesperson for their product,” Quinn says. “I’m not out there trying to influence anyone to use a product.”

Quinn was paid by J&J division McNeil Pediatrics. Parker, who didn’t immediately return a phone call, was paid by another J&J unit, Janssen. That company makes the antipsychotic Risperdal.

Quinn says she “wholeheartedly” supports publishing the doctors’ payments. The speeches by medical experts helps educate the public, she says.