Improved disclosure needed for drug firm-sponsored events
Wednesday November 4th, 2009
Efforts to agree standards of disclosure for events held by drug companies have proved inadequate, investigators have warned.
The analysis comes from Australia, where rules have been introduced to identify conferences and events sponsored by drug companies.
The mandatory reporting standards in place in Australia are limited to the monetary value of gifts or sponsorship. But they should also cover allow the educational value of sponsored events, say Dr David Henry of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, Canada, and colleagues.
In the journal PLoS Medicine, they explain: "There are moves internationally to ensure greater disclosure of gifts and educational events for doctors paid for by pharmaceutical manufacturers.
"However, there is no agreement on appropriate standards of disclosure. In Australia, since mid-2007, there has been mandatory reporting of details of every industry-sponsored event, including the costs of any hospitality provided."
The researchers looked at the details of industry-sponsored events in Australia in 2007. There were around 600 such events per week, costing 31 million Australian dollars. Over half of this was spent on hospitality (food, beverages and accommodation).
Expenditure was highest on medical specialists prescribing high cost drugs - oncologists, endocrinologists, and cardiologists.
The authors describe the new Australian reporting standards as "a significant advance", but "inadequate", as they should include details of speakers and educational content at events.
In particular, they believe it should be reported whether drug firm sponsors helped select the speakers, or the content of presentations, "and the nature of any direct or indirect financial ties between speakers and sponsors".
Setting a monetary threshold below which details of do not need to be disclosed is inadequate, as "It is not only the size of the gift that matters," they say, "it is the sense of reciprocity it engenders."
Tags: Australia | Pharmaceuticals | World Health
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