The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility

Tag Archive for ‘Drug Companies’

Drug Companies Reduce Payments to Doctors as Scrutiny Mounts

Following an investigation by ProPublica of payments made by drug companies to doctors, some of the nation’s top medical schools last year cracked down on professors who give paid promotional talks for drugmakers. The firms themselves cut back on such spending in the wake of mounting scrutiny.

Financial Ties Bind Medical Societies to Drug Makers

From the time they arrived to the moment they laid their heads on hotel pillows, the thousands of cardiologists attending this week’s Heart Rhythm Society conference in San Francisco have been bombarded with pitches for drugs and medical devices. Who arranged this commercial barrage? The society itself, which sold access to its members and their purchasing power.

Lawsuits Say Pharma Illegally Paid Doctors to Push Their Drugs

Drug companies say the millions of dollars they pay physicians for speaking and consulting justly compensates them for the laudable work of educating their colleagues. But ProPublic reports that a series of lawsuits brought by former employees of those companies allege the money often was used for illegal purposes — financially rewarding doctors for prescribing their brand-name medications.

Medical Groups Set New Ethics Code for Dealing with Industry

The code provides guidance “on appropriate interactions with for-profit companies in the health care sector,” and seeks to ensure that societies’ interactions with companies “are independent and transparent.” Thirteen medical societies have already formally adopted the code.