|
E-mail this page to a friend!
Senior Citizen Politics
Aging Committee Seeks Alternative to Drug Companies
Educating Physicians on New Drugs
Hearing Wednesday will explore
government program to provide the information
 March 10, 2008 – Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) does not
like doctors getting their first introduction to a new drug from a
pharmaceutical sales representative – he thinks it unfairly influences
the physicians. Instead, the chairman of the Senate aging committee
wants the government to provide the information. He will hold a hearing
on Wednesday to consider this revolutionary alternative.
| |
Related Stories |
|
| |
Aging Committee Hears Surgeons Paid Millions to
Promote Medical Devices
Investigator testifies that hip & knee replacement
market paid $800 million to doctors over five years
Feb. 27, 2008
Drug Company Wants
to Force $2,000 Cancer Drug to Replace $40 Avastin
Sen. Kohl demands info on Genentech move that could cost
Medicare $3 billion annually for treating of macular degeneration
Nov. 29, 2007
Senators Kohl, Grassley Demand Drug Companies Reveal
Gifts to Doctors
McCaskill, Schumer, Klobuchar and Kennedy
co-sponsor new bill
Sept. 10, 2007
Aging Committee Chair’s National Registry of Drug
Company Gifts to Docs Creates a Storm
Proposal by Senators Kohl, McCaskill catch media’s
attention
July 2, 2007
Senate Aging Committee Focuses on $19 Billion Drug
Companies Give Physicians
‘Paid to Prescribe? Exploring the Relationship
Between Doctors and the Drug Industry’ is hearing title
June 26, 2007
New Medicare Rule to Stop Physicians from Referring
Patients to Businesses Where They Profit
Final step of physician self-referral prohibition
known as the Stark law
Aug. 28, 2007
Read more
on
> Politics for Senior Citizens
>
Medicare
>
Medicare Drug Program |
|
“The drug industry’s educational outreach is
essentially a marketing program, and evidence shows that doctors’
prescribing patterns can be heavily influenced by pharmaceutical sales
representatives,” says the news release from the Senate Special
Committee on Aging that announced the hearing.
Wednesday’s hearing will primarily consider
creating a federal “academic detailing” program, which would provide
physicians and other prescribers with an “objective source of unbiased
information” on all prescription drugs, based on scientific research.
“Without academic detailing, physicians may not
have access to information about the full array of pharmaceutical
options, including low-cost generic alternatives,” the news release
states.
“Research has shown that when doctors have full
access to comprehensive and unbiased data on all the drugs available,
they prescribe the best drug as opposed to the newest one, and
healthcare spending is lowered.”
Chairman Kohl also announced that he plans to
introduce a bill with Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) this spring to create a
federal academic detailing program.
Last June, the committee also looked at the
relationship between physicians and the pharmaceutical industry.
Following that hearing, Kohl and Finance Committee Ranking Member
Charles Grassley (R-IA) introduced the
Physician Payment Sunshine Act (S.2029) require manufacturers of
pharmaceutical drugs, medical devices, and biologics to disclose the
amount of money they give to doctors through payments, gifts, honoraria,
travel and other means.
The drug industry has challenged the Grassley-Kohl
bill, claiming that the legislation will potentially restrict their
ability to inform doctors about new drugs. The academic detailing
legislation under consideration by Chairman Kohl and Senator Durbin
addresses this charge.
The hearing – Under the Influence: Can We Provide
Doctors an Alternative to Biased Drug Reviews? – will be at 10:30 a.m.,
March 12, in Room 562 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
Expected to testify are the following:
● Shahram Ahari, former Eli Lilly pharmaceutical
sales representative
● Dr. Jerry Avorn, Professor of Medicine, Harvard
Medical School
● Allan Coukell, Director of Policy and Strategic
Communications of The Prescription Project Group
● Nora Dowd Eisenhower, Secretary of the
Pennsylvania Department of Aging
● Ambrose Carrejo, Assistant Director of
Pharmaceutical Contracting and Strategic Purchasing, Kaiser Permanente
The hearing will be Webcast and the link can be
found at the committee webpage:
www.aging.senate.gov
Click to More Senior News on the
Front Page
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
