Pfizer Boards Disclosure Train
Like GSK, Lilly, and Merck, Pfizer has begun to publicly disclose its payments to US docs for their advising and speaker services, as of yesterday.* However, unlike the other companies, Pfizer is revealing how much money it has given to fund US-based clinical trials (ie, research grants).
During the second half of 2009, the world’s biggest drug firm shelled out $19.8 million to 4500 health care professionals ($4400, on average, per HCP) and $15.3 million to 250 academic or other research groups ($61,200, on average, per group). Pfizer provides a friendly graph (below) and also notes that it invests about $7 billion in R&D and spends about $1.3 billion to bring a drug to market.
Individual Pfizer payments are available here, with a database that is browsable and searchable. However, the payment information, like that from other companies, is not easily downloadable, as yesterday’s NYT notes.
According to a Pfizer spokesperson, also by way of the NYT, the disclosures (or at least most of them) are mandated by an “integrity agreement” between Pfizer and the federal government. The agreement was struck as part of a settlement in re Pfizer’s off-label promotion of drugs (like Wyeth’s Neurontin [gabapentin]).
HCP = health care professional (including nurse practitioners and PAs).
* “Meals, business travel expenses and educational items that are greater than or equal to $25 in value, and where the aggregate amount paid to an individual health care professional is greater than or equal to $500 in a calendar year.”
A native East Tennessean, Barbara Martin is a formerly practicing, board-certified neurologist who received her BS (psychology, summa cum laude) and MD from Duke University before completing her postgraduate training (internship, residency, fellowship) at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She has worked in academia, private practice, medical publishing, drug market research, and continuing medical education (CME). For the last 3 years, she has worked in a freelance capacity as a medical writer, analyst, and consultant. Follow Dr. Barbara Martin on Google + and Twitter.
