Physician Payment Sunshine: Canadian Style

According to a report, 10 Canadian-based firms have agreed to divulge the amount of money they give to physicians and health organizations every year. They say the voluntary program should make the financial ties between pharma and medicine more visible – and help "neutralize" charges of conflict of interest. The firms plan to start publishing statistics on their overall payments to health professionals next year, though will stop short of releasing figures for individual physicians, as now required in the United States. The program was started by GlaxoSmithKline Canada (GSK) and has been endorsed by Innovative Medicines Canada, which is the pharmaceutical sector's trade association. GSK expects other companies to join soon, but already counts Eli Lily, Gilead, Abbive, Amgen, and others are participants. Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, Bayer, and Sanofi are noted as being absent thus far. The plan will publish only "aggregate" amounts, in contrast to the Sunshine Act in the United States which requires industry to publicly post the amount firms give individual, named doctors and hospitals. Edward Gudaitis, general manager of Gilead Canada, said the Canadian companies will release figures in three areas: fees for consulting, speaking and other services provided by health professionals; money given doctors to travel to international functions; and grants provided to some health-care organizations. "This … will help shine a light on it and provide a level of integrity a...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs