Drug company payments to doctors still hard to access despite disclosure laws

doi:10.1136/bmj.39164.663044.DB

BMJ 2007;334:655 (31 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39164.663044.DB

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Drug company payments to doctors still hard to access despite disclosure laws

Fred Charatan

Florida

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

An attempt to use disclosure laws passed by two US states todiscover the sums of money paid by drug companies to doctorsfound the relevant information was of limited quality and hardto access.

The US states of California, Maine, West Virginia, Vermont,Minnesota, and the District of Columbia have laws mandatingdisclosure of payments made to doctors by drug companies. Intwo of these states, Vermont and Minnesota, payment disclosuresare meant to be publicly available.

The Vermont law, enacted in 2001, requires drug companies todisclose any gift or payment of $25 (£13; ${euro}$ 19) or moreto doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, pharmacists, or healthinsurers for the purpose of marketing their products. The onlystate with a similar law is Minnesota, which in 1993 prohibitedcompanies from giving gifts valued at more than $50 to doctorsor other healthcare providers. The law also requires disclosuresof payments . . . [Full text of this article]