Vermont Bill Part of Increasing Effort to Curb Gifts from Pharmaceutical Companies to Doctors
A Vermont bill expected to be signed on June 13 by Gov. Howard Dean (D) that would require pharmaceutical companies to report to the state any gifts to doctors valued at or above $25 is "part of a growing effort by state and federal lawmakers to rein in drug companies' marketing practices," the New York Times reports. The Vermont bill, which would not apply to free drug samples or medical student scholarships, would allow state officials to make gift-disclosure information available to the public so that patients "can see what gifts their doctors have accepted." Other measures regulating drug company marketing have been introduced in at least 15 other states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, including a Hawaii law passed last month that requires companies to report how much they are spending on television advertisements in the state. In addition, federal lawmakers recently introduced a bill that would prohibit pharmaceutical companies from deducting consumer marketing costs that exceed research expenditures from their taxes (Petersen, New York Times, 6/13).
A Call for Looser Guidelines
Some members of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia has written a resolution asking the American Medical Association to loosen its ethics guidelines on gifts from drug companies during the organization's annual meeting next week, the Chicago Tribune reports. The D.C. doctors want the AMA to drop a policy that says subsidies from the drug industry should not be accepted "directly or indirectly" for travel, lodging or personal expenses and doctors should not be compensated for their time. Their resolution states that doctors' time is an "undervalued commodity" and the current policy against reimbursements "discourage[s] physicians from attending meetings and dinners for educational purposes" (Japsen, Chicago Tribune, 6/13).
