Why does big pharma pay doctors? It raises an important question about healthcare ethics |
If you’re a cancer patient receiving a blockbuster drug, how much should the pharmaceutical company pay your oncologist to prescribe that drug?
What if you want to do something about your obesity and all its emerging complications? How much should big pharma pay your endocrinologist to prescribe a weight-loss drug?
Or take something even more ubiquitous such as high blood pressure and cholesterol: of hundreds of brands to choose from, what prompted your cardiologist to prescribe the ones you take? Could it be money?
In all these cases, you would hope the only factor in decision-making was straightforward: the specialist paired the right drug with the right patient and called it a day. It is also what every specialist wants to believe.
But when money influences so many decisions, why not pharmaceutical prescribing?
This is an old conundrum with new updates, the latest of which comes from Australian researchers.
Big pharma has long used payments to doctors to advertise its products. The payments are in the form of consultancy fees, advisory board meetings, educational sponsorship and coverage of travel, accommodation and entertainment.
In 2016, Medicines Australia, the peak body representing the biggest names in the pharmaceutical industry, mandated reporting of payments to doctors. It took some years (and a lot of courage) to subsequently launch an online repository to........