Buying A Doctor’s Loyalty To A Drug Can Be As Cheap As $20 Meal
A new study, conducted by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco, finds that a free meal is all it takes for drugmakers to influence doctors' prescribing habits.
The Washington Post:
How A Simple Sandwich Could Be Driving Up Drug Prices
Doctors who ate a single meal on a drug company's tab had a higher likelihood of writing a prescription for the name-brand drug that was being promoted instead of equivalent drugs that were cheaper, according to a new study. And the more meals — or the more expensive the meals — the greater the rate of prescribing the pitched drug. The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, can't show that dinner or doughnuts with the pharmaceutical company caused physicians to preferentially prescribe a particular drug, but it revealed a striking correlation between breaking bread with a sales representative who is pushing a particular drug and doctors who are prescribing it. Overall, the meals received were modest, with an average cost of less than $20. (Johnson, 6/20)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Even $20 Meals Can Sway Doctors, Study Finds
“We really don’t think that a $5 bagel sandwich is influencing a doctor or buying a prescribing pattern,” said Colette DeJong, a fourth-year UCSF medical student and co-author of the study. “Rather, we think our findings shift the conversation to say it’s not about the money, but more about the time spent between the doctor and drug representative.” (Colliver, 6/20)
The Wall Street Journal:
Even Cheap Meals Influence Doctors’ Drug Prescriptions, Study Suggests
The industry association, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said that the study “cherry-picks physician prescribing data for a subset of medicines to advance a false narrative” and that drugmakers interact with doctors to share drug safety and efficacy information. Critics say drugmakers’ payments and gifts to doctors can improperly influence medical decisions and inflate drug costs by steering doctors to pricey brand-name drugs. (Loftus, 6/20)