Op ed in Hearst newspapers March 2010

By Brenda Kelley and Jean Rexford 

The effort to bring greater transparency and accountability to the pharmaceutical and medical device industries is about more than just a free lunch. It’s about restoring public confidence in those industries and reassuring consumers that the relationships between doctors and industries are transparent, free from any perceived or real conflicts of interest, and ultimately guided by the best interests of the patient.

We want to make sure we, as the consumer, get the least expensive and most appropriate drug. That can be accomplished by requiring the pharmaceutical industry to disclose all payments to physicians and restricting the industry from making inappropriate, lavish gifts to health care providers.

We know that the billions of dollars spent annually by drug companies to influence the prescribing decisions of doctors are eroding the doctor-patient relationship. According to the Pew Prescription Project, as many as 70 percent of patients believe gifts to doctors significantly impact prescribing practices. A survey published in the American Journal of Medicine found that 84 percent of physicians think their peers are influenced by pharmaceutical marketing.

And while claiming that it already has a strong code of ethics, the drug industry has continually failed to police itself. Drug manufacturers have been repeatedly sued and paid billions in fines and payments to resolve criminal and legal actions taken against them.