BusinessWeek Engages in Sloppy Reporting of Industry-Funded CME

In a recent BusinessWeek article, writer Arlene Weintraub demonstrates a very poor understanding of the differences between outright pharma marketing and the current status of industry-funded, certified continuing medical education (CME). Several online comments to the article, which features the usual high dudgeon of CME critic Daniel Carlat, rightly indicate that Weintraub describes a dated version of industry-funded medical education. For example, MCM's Lew Pinsker wrote,

It's unfortunate that a reporter for a major business periodical would indict a billion-dollar industry without doing due journalistic diligence in researching her subject. As has been pointed out in previous comments, her use of the term "marketing companies" when describing accredited medical education companies ignores the significant changes which have been taking place for more than a year. Organizations which develop certified CME cannot in any way be "marketing companies".

In her article, Weintraub cites two companies, Pfizer and Zimmer Holdings, as having recently suspended their funding of CME produced by medical education communications companies (MECCs). In fact, Zimmer—an orthopedic device company—suspended funding of all CME activity, Weintraub reports, and will identify an "independent third party," like a professional medical society, to produce the CME activities that the company supports financially.

However, Weintraub fails to note that Zimmer's move away from funding CME is likely related to fallout from a Deferred Prosecution Agreement in September of last year with the US Attorney's Office in New Jersey. The Indiana company settled with federal prosecutors as a result of an investigation into the company's financial relationships with consulting orthopedic surgeons. As part of the agreement, Zimmer will pay a civil fine of $169.5 million* and agreed to an 18-month oversight by a federal monitor appointed by the DOJ and a 5-year Corporate Integrity Agreement with the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The company, however, did not admit to any wrongdoing.

In April of this year, Zimmer announced "comprehensive changes in its corporate compliance model," which "is designed to aggressively reduce potential or perceived conflicts of interest inherent in consulting relationships between industry and healthcare professionals." The changes are intended to "meet and exceed the requirements of its September 2007 resolution agreements with the US government," the company wrote in its press release. 

* According to Yahoo, Zimmer's net income for 2007 was $773.2 million.