In an attempt to control rising drug costs, four states – Maine, Nevada, New Mexico, Vermont – have legislation requiring pharmaceutical representatives to report on marketing expenditures to physicians. Ten other states are currently considering such legislation, while six other states have rejected similar legislation.
“The first step state lawmakers are taking is requiring companies to report how much sales representatives are spending and what they’re spending it on. Sponsors of these bills acknowledge that they may not immediately lower costs, but new laws could cause a budget shift with less spent on marketing and more spent on samples, medical education support and research and development.”
While both the AMA and the pharmaceutical industry have had ethical guidelines in place since 1990, some don’t think that these guidelines go far enough when considering the expenditures involved. In 2003, drug companies spent $21 billion on marketing versus $32 billion on research and development.
The Center for Policy Alternatives reports that:
“Drug manufacturers spent more than $16 billion on direct marketing to doctors in the United States during 2001. That amounts to more than $19,000 per physician per year. This money is largely spent on visits to doctors by drug manufacturer sales representatives, called “detailers.” The job of a detailer is to promote the latest, most expensive brand name drugs.”
“Drug companies increased spending on marketing to doctors by 74 percent between 1997 and 2001, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office. The drug industry employed 87,892 detailers in 2001, an increase of 110 percent from the 41,855 employed in 1996. During that period, the drug industry sales force grew from one detailer for every 19 doctors to one detailer for every nine physicians in America.”
More on state efforts to control prescription drug costs and the impact of prescription drug costs on workers compensation.
Tags: ethics, pharmaceutical industry, physicians
