From: drarwingnuttephd@gmail.com   
      
   Double Dip: Doctors Paid to Advise, Promote Drug Companies   
   That Fund Their Research   
      
   Research has been seen as less objectionable than other forms of interactions   
   with drug companies, but 10 percent of researchers   
   have multiple ties among the nine companies ProPublica analyzed. That raises   
   questions about doctors' impartiality.   
   by and   
   ProPublica, March 25, 2014, 12 a.m.   
   Charles Ornstein Ryann Grochowski Jones   
   This story was co-published with   
   .   
   The   
   Boston Globe   
   Pharmaceutical companies pay for the   
   clinical trials that Dr. Yoav Golan conducts   
   on antibiotics at Tufts Medical Center.   
   They also pay him tens of thousands of   
   dollars a year to give speeches and advice   
   on behalf of their drugs.   
   If Golan worked at some teaching hospitals,   
   he would be barred or severely restricted   
   from accepting both research funding and   
   personal payments for promotional speaking or consulting from drug makers.   
   These   
   hospitals fear the money could influence clinical findings, or at least create   
   the appearance   
   of a conflict of interest.   
   Yet Tufts and many other academic medical centers allow doctors to accept   
   overlapping   
   payments -- and some doctors still take them.   
   A ProPublica analysis shows that more than 1,300 practitioners nationwide   
   received both   
   research money and speaking or consulting fees from the same drug maker in   
   2012. All   
   told, they received more than $90 million in research grants -- plus nearly   
   $13 million for   
   speaking engagements and another $4 million for consulting.   
   Critics say doctors who conduct a clinical trial while accepting personal   
   payments from   
   the company sponsoring the study can feel beholden to the drug maker.   
   "The pharmaceutical company has a paramount stake in a favorable outcome. The   
   [research] grant recipient has a stake in a favorable outcome and the   
   honorarium   
   recipient or consultant has yet another stake in the outcome," said David   
   Rothman,   
   director of the Center for Medicine as a Profession at Columbia University.   
   "It's not only   
   my lab. It's my mortgage."   
   ProPublica used its database, which tracks payments to practitioners by   
   15 drug companies, to conduct the review. Not every company discloses all   
   types of   
   payments -- research, speaking and consulting -- or distinguishes between the   
   types. The   
   analysis covered the nine companies that disclosed payments in this form.   
   Dollars for Docs   
   Golan, an infectious disease specialist, was the only doctor who received   
   speaking,   
   consulting, and research payments from three companies in 2012, the most   
   recent year   
   for which data has been compiled. Pfizer, Merck, and Forest Labs gave Tufts   
   $51,000 for   
   his research that year, in addition to paying him $125,000 to speak about   
   their drugs and   
   $13,000 for consulting. His speaking fees ranked second nationally among all   
   the   
   researchers examined, and his total personal payments ranked fourth.   
   Golan referred questions to the public relations department at Tufts Medical   
   Center,   
   which said in a statement that Golan complies with its research    
   onflict-of-interest policy   
   and that officials keep a close watch over his work.   
   Yoav Golan (Photo courtesy of   
   )   
   Tufts Medical   
   Center   
   Dollars for Doctors   
   How Industry Money Reaches Physiciansand that officials keep a close watch   
   over his work.   
   "Dr. Golan's work has contributed to the development of two important   
   antibiotics,   
   including the first antibiotic developed in the past 25 years to treat the   
   growing threat of   
   deadly C. difficile," the statement said.   
   Pharmaceutical companies' payments for promotional speaking and consulting   
   in recent years, as blockbuster drugs have lost patent protection and the   
   push for transparency has advanced. Beginning this fall, all drug companies   
   they made to doctors, under the Physician Payment Sunshine   
   Act, part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.   
   appear to   
   have decreased   
   will have to   
   publicly disclose payments   
   But industry-backed clinical studies, which can lead to advances in care, have   
   largely   
   been seen as a separate matter.   
   ProPublica's is the first large-scale analysis of how frequently researchers   
   receive   
   additional payments from companies that fund their clinical trials. About 10   
   percent of   
   researchers for the nine companies examined for this story also received money   
   for   
   speaking or consulting, or both.   
   One doctor's conflicts: When research meets promotion   
   , an infectious disease specialist at Tufts Medical Center, received speaking,   
   consulting and research payments from three companies in 2012, the only   
   physician in ProPublica's   
   that met those criteria. Some ethicists question doctors' abilities to stay   
   impartial when receiving both research and personal payments from   
   pharmaceutical companies.   
   Dr. Yoav Golan   
   Dollars for Docs database   
   Forest Labs Merck Pfizer Total   
   Research $30,360 $12,050 $9,062 $51,472   
   Consulting $6,050 $5,000 $2,250 $13,300   
   Speaking $53,300 $43,740 $27,500 + $124,540   
   =$137,840   
   Source: Company disclosures, ProPublica research. NOTE: Research payments were   
   made to Tufts Medical Center, with Golan listed as the principal investigator.   
   Pfizer had the lowest rate of dual relationships among its researchers, about   
   7 percent;   
   Novartis and ViiV Healthcare had the highest, at more than 15 percent.   
   ViiV spokesman Marc Meachem said his company focuses exclusively on HIV   
   medications, so "the number of people with the expertise to do both the   
   research and be   
   expert speakers is a lot smaller."   
   In a statement, Novartis said it abides by the policies of different academic   
   institutions,   
   and requires doctors it works with to receive permission, if needed, from   
   their employers.   
   The Mayo Clinic and prohibit employees from   
   receiving personal compensation from companies that concurrently fund their   
   research.   
   allows doctors to take no more than $10,000 annually in personal income from   
   companies funding their research.   
   University of California San Francisco   
   Harvard   
   "It's such an enormous conflict of interest to have personal financial gain   
   from the   
   company that's sponsoring a clinical trial on human subjects that you're the   
   principal   
   investigator on," said Lisa Bero, a professor of pharmacy at UC San Francisco   
   who chaired   
   its conflict of interest committee from 1999 to 2010.   
   Tufts University School of Medicine does not bar overlapping payments, but has   
   a policy   
   for a pharmaceutical company if "the company   
   controls the content of the presentation, which may include creating or having   
   final   
   approval over the slides or presentation materials or setting limits on the   
   scope of   
   discussion."   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)