In a surprise about-face for the health care industry, GlaxoSmithKline, the giant drug maker behind brand names such as Advair and Flovent asthma treatments and the Amoxil antibiotic, said Tuesday that it will end direct payments to doctors and other health care professionals who promote its prescription medicines.
Critics have long accused the pharmaceutical industry of undue influence in health care decisions between patients and doctors by providing the pay incentives. They say the relationship is a conflict of interest that makes primary patient care secondary.
Liz Coyle, a spokeswoman for the consumer advocacy group Georgia Watch, called the change overdue.
“Common sense would suggest that it’s not in the best interest of patient care to have physicians’ prescribing often very expensive medicines because they stand to gain more financially if they do,” Coyle told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday.
According to ProPublica, a New York-based non-profit that maintains a database of 15 major drug makers and their payments since 2009, Georgia physicians and institutions have received $54.7 million over the period as of January.
Beginning next year, the companies, in addition to medical device makers, will be required to make the disclosures under the Affordable Care Act.
There was no immediate word on whether Merck & Co., Amgen and other major drug makers would follow GlaxoSmithKline’s lead.
GlaxoSmithKline Chief Executive Officer Andrew Witty, in a statement announcing the changes, said the company wants “to bring greater clarity and confidence that whenever we talk to a doctor, nurse or other prescriber, it is patients’ interests that always come first.”
Last year, however, GlaxoSmithKline agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges and to pay $3 billion to settle a U.S. Justice Department case in which the drug maker was accused of illegally marketing its Paxil and Wellbutrin antidepressants and the Avandia diabetes drug, and withholding safety data from U.S. regulators.
Starting next year, the giant British pharmaceutical company said it will start phasing out commissions to sales staff for meeting certain targets in pitching medicines to prescribing physicians. Instead, the staff will be evaluated and rewarded for their technical knowledge of the drugs and the quality of the service they deliver to support improved patient care, the company said.
In 2016, the company will end the practice of paying healthcare professionals for speaking about its products or disease areas to audiences who can prescribe or influence prescribing, and it will end direct payments to physicians who attend medical conferences.
According to a Reuters report, citing industry sources, GlaxoSmithKline currently spends about $82 million annually to compensate doctors for speeches or to attend conferences.
Coyle, of Georgia Watch, said she hopes GlaxoSmithKline’s competitiors will follow its lead in ending the payments to physicians. “To the extent that money is driving the development and sales of these medicines, anything that can take away some of that additional cost would be a good thing to make drugs affordable for consumers.”
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