\nUK May Require Doctors to Report Their Financial Ties to Drug Makers<\/a><\/div>\nPharmalot: WSJ <\/font><\/strong><\/div>\nBy Ed Silverman<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n
Jul 27, 2015<\/div>\n<\/a> <\/p>\n
U.K. doctors and public health officials may be required to report any financial ties to drug makers under plans that are being considered by U.K. government officials, The Telegraph<\/a> reports. The move comes after the paper ran an undercover investigation showing how National Health Service staffers were allegedly paid by drug makers that lobby health care providers to use specific medicines.<\/p>\n
Some staff, who say they worked as industry consultants, charged more than $23,000 to organize so-called ‘advisory board’ meetings for drug makers and many of the meetings took place in five-star hotels in other countries, according to the paper. Some attendees told the Telegraph they were taken to “flashy” restaurants and paid large sums while considering whether to “switch” drugs.<\/p>\n
NHS staffers who participated in the advisory boards argue their involvement helps them make “best use” of government money by analyzing drugs and providing expert advice, the paper wrote. Meanwhile, a dozen NHS staffers who attended one meeting in Germany told the paper they reported the trip and payments from a drug maker to their employers, and were not involved in subsequent decisions to adopt the drugs that were discussed. Each was paid nearly $800 a day.<\/p>\n
An NHS England spokesman tells the paper “these are extremely serious allegations so we have immediately directed NHS Protect [an investigative agency] to launch a full investigation of each and every case identified by this press report.” He adds the U.K. may want to pass a law requiring “full disclosure of any payments” made by companies to health professionals or NHS employees…<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nThe National Health Service in England is a dramatically different species from the system of care in the US, but if you take a look at the article in The Telegraph<\/a>, you’ll be struck by how familiar this story sounds – attesting to the universality of the adage, "money talks." <\/div>\n<\/p>\n
Personally, I find the rate at which these things are being exposed these days encouraging. There’s a momentum developing to bring the the widespread corruption in pharmaceutical clinical trials, marketing, and pricing out into the bright light of public scrutiny. I’m always amazed when such things finally happen – when some cause that seems like it will remain lost forever reaches a kindling point and bursts into the flames it has long deserved. In the UK, physicians in the NHS appear to be salaried, though after three years living there, my understanding of how all that worked was no greater that of any of their other great British enigmas like Cricket or the London Times’ puzzles. While our medical care systems differ, and the pharmaceutical games seem to be played in a different way – the impact and the rationalizations are the same on both sides of the pond: <\/div>\n\nNHS staffers who participated in the advisory boards argue their involvement helps them make “best use” of government money by analyzing drugs and providing expert advice…<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n