Pharmaceutical reps certainly haven't wasted their time wining and dining doctors all these years.
A new analysis of payments made by drug makers to doctors shows that physicians who accept payments or other things of value from businesses, including meals, are more likely to prescribe name-brand medications than doctors who don't rub elbows with pharma reps.
The analysis, conducted by ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism site, found that doctors in five different fields were all more likely to prescribe name brands than generics. The correlation was significant.
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For instance, internists who received more than $5,000 a year from the medical industry prescribed name brands 30 percent of the time, while their colleagues who had received no payments prescribed the higher priced drugs 20 percent of the time.
Family doctors who received more than $5,000 prescribed name brands 25.8 percent of the time, while those who didn't receive payments did so 18.7 percent of the time.
Even ophthalmologists who didn't receive a dime from pharma reps prescribed name brand drugs 46.4 percent of the time, but those who got more than $5,000 did so a whopping 64.6 percent of the time.
Many hospitals have imposed rules against doctors accepting payments or other gifts from business interests. Research has shown that far fewer doctors are accessible to industry reps than in the past.
Other equally important trends are working against name brand drugs. The American College of Physicians recommended last year that physicians prescribe generics over name brands, arguing that the more affordable a medication, the more likely a patient will take it as prescribed. The American Medical Association, meanwhile, has proposed barring drug advertisements.
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