FDA, Doctors Need to Stop Rubbing Elbows With the Pharma Industry
On the heels of Wednesday’s article on the closer examination of doctors’ relationships with pharmaceutical companies, an editorial in today’s New York Times calls for some house cleaning on a much higher level, in the FDA.
Earlier this week, Gardiner Harris and Janet Roberts reported in “Doctors’ Ties to Drug Makers Are Put on Close View,”
In dozens of interviews, most doctors said that these payments [from pharmaceutical companies] had no effect on their care of patients.
…
There is nothing illegal about doctors’ accepting money for marketing talks, and professional organizations have largely ignored the issue.
But research shows that doctors who have close relationships with drug makers tend to prescribe more, newer and pricier drugs — whether or not they are in the best interests of patients.
“When honest human beings have a vested stake in seeing the world in a particular way, they’re incapable of objectivity and independence,” said Max H. Bazerman, a professor at Harvard Business School. “A doctor who represents a pharmaceutical company will tend to see the data in a slightly more positive light and as a result will overprescribe that company’s drugs.”
Although Congress is making moves toward excluding those with a financial stake in related companies from voting on a drug’s approval or denial, “A Cleaner Food and Drug Administration” suggests that they need to go much, much further:
Congress needs to confront another worrisome source of industry’s influence: the $300 million in annual fees paid by pharmaceutical manufacturers that help finance the approval process and regulation of drugs. Critics have long complained that these user fees distort the agency’s objectivity and make for a too cozy atmosphere between the industry and its regulators.
The Bush administration, unfortunately, is seeking to increase reliance on user fees. That’s the wrong direction to go. To ensure that the public’s interests are its only concern, the F.D.A. should be supported entirely by public funds.
I tend to agree that this is an area for major concern, and we’ve seen the debate heat up very recently both here (in this post and this one) and at Weary Parent regarding the recently mandated HPV vaccine Gardasil, marketed by Merck.
What do you think?
Tags: approval, conflict-of-interest, Congress, doctor, drugs, FDA, financial-stake, Food-and-Drug-Administration, Gardasil, Health, HPV, medication, Merck, pharmaceutical-industry, physician, treatment, vaccine, woman, women, Womens-HealthRelated Stories
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