New government data show drug and medical device makers paid a shocking $6.49 billion to doctors and hospitals in 2014.
It’s no secret that the pharmaceutical industry has an incestuous—and incredibly profitable—relationship with some of the doctors who prescribe their drugs to patients. But a new set of data compiled by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) shows the extent to which some doctors are in the pocket of Big Pharma.
The CMS data was made available through the publicly searchable Open Payments program. The program is meant to increase transparency by requiring drug and device manufacturers to report payments to doctors.
The $6.49 billion in payments included consulting fees and other costs—like travel to exotic locales, lodging in expensive hotels, and big food and beverage tabs. Pharmaceutical companies often offer continuing education courses to doctors in the form of talks and conferences that are little more than promotional opportunities for the latest products Big Pharma is trying to peddle. The CMS report mentions payments to doctors for a training seminar held in the Cayman Islands.
Companies argue that the payments […]
As a male victim of LUPRON zombification, I found the testimony of these other victims both horrifying and enlightening. Scroll down the comments section of the following website to view the (unsurprising) revelation that a woman has learned that her physician accepted from the drug’s maker a routine payment of $1,000 per injection of Lupron (which costs $5,000 to the patient). In my case, there’s no wonder that the insurance company insisted that my urologist provide proof for such an expenditure.
Sorry . . . I forgot to include the linkage to the site cited in my initial comment. — Larry W. Bryant
http://wp.rxisk.org/lupron-a-nightmare-produced-in-abbvie/