By Liz Kowalczyk
Globe Staff / September 29, 2009
At least 60 Massachusetts doctors collectively have earned more than a half-million dollars this year as speakers paid by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co. - including two Boston Medical Center physicians whose participation is being reviewed for possible violation of a hospital policy against marketing activities by its doctors.
After learning of the doctors’ company-sponsored talks from the Globe, Boston Medical Center said it would investigate the matter and directed the physicians not to make any further presentations on behalf of Lilly in the meantime.
The use of physicians in speakers programs or “bureaus’’ like Lilly’s, in which doctors generally use company-prepared materials to explain a drug’s uses and dosing to their colleagues, is widespread in the drug industry. But the practice is under growing scrutiny and some academic medical centers are barring their doctors from participating, believing that physicians essentially become hired advertising guns, with weakened credibility.
Politicians, regulators, and some physicians also are concerned that doctors who give company-sponsored talks may present biased information that could underplay harmful side effects, or encourage the use of expensive brand name medications instead of less costly alternatives. When the company provides the power point, the risk of bias is even greater, they say.
Physicians on speakers bureaus, however, argue that they carefully screen the information for accuracy, and that the talks are a good way to educate the medical community about new drugs.
Because of this debate and other problems - pharmaceutical firms have paid millions in fines for illegally marketing medications - companies are under political pressure to disclose their financial relationships with doctors. Lilly is one of the first companies to publicly release a list of paid consultants and speakers. It includes more than 60 Massachusetts doctors, who were paid approximately $588,000 for its speakers programs in the first three months of 2009. Some doctors earned up to $50,000 giving talks to their colleagues.
At Boston Medical Center, Dr. Brian McGeeney, a neurologist, received $30,000 during that period, and Dr. Elliot Sternthal, an endocrinologist, was paid $11,587.50, according to a faculty registry on Lilly’s website.
Hospital spokeswoman Gina Digravio initially told the Globe last week that the two doctors did not violate the hospital’s policy, because they said they “fully determined their presentations.’’ The two-year-old rule bars doctors from giving industry-sponsored talks unless the “lecture’s content, including slides and written materials, are determined by the clinician.’’ Lilly, however, says on its website that it alone provides the information presented by speakers. Spokeswoman Carole Puls said the company provides slides and other materials.
Later in the week, the hospital revised its position, saying, “we have instructed the doctors to refrain from any further presentations pending a review by the medical campus provost.’’
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/29/60_doctors_took_speaker_fees_from_drug_giant/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed3
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