GSK Announces New CME Standard Following Drug Industry Shake-Up
Last week drug giant GlaxoSmithKline announced a new standard for funding continuing medical education (CME) programs for health care providers – a sign that drugmakers are responding to public outcry and recent settlements involving improper marketing practices. Specifically, starting in 2010 GSK will fund only independent medical education programs that “are clearly designed to close gaps in patient care, and that demonstrate support for the optimal performance of health care professionals.”
Paying health care practitioners hefty sums to host/attend sham “continuing medical education” junkets as an inducement for prescribing pharmaceuticals has long been a standard industry practice. However, drugmakers have been slammed in recent years with False Claims Act cases alleging that pharmaceutical companies engaged in extensive “off-label marketing”, a term used to describe the practice of marketing drugs for non-FDA approved uses. Earlier this month, the Department of Justice announced the largest False Claims Act settlement in history with drugmaker Pfizer. Specifically, Pfizer will pay $2.3 billion to settle allegations that it improperly marketed numerous pharmaceuticals, including by paying physicians hefty sums for sham “speaking engagements” to induce them to prescribe drugs for off-label purposes.
According to the GSK press release, the drugmaker will invite grant applications for CME from medical education providers with “a documented track record of developing and delivering high quality medical education delivering high quality medical education programs that have a measurable impact on improved patient health. Potential grant applicants will be limited to academic medical centers and their affiliated teaching and patient care institutions, as well as national-level professional medical associations that represent healthcare professionals responsible for the delivery of patient care. All selected providers must be directly accredited by a recognized accrediting body.” GSK will also post all approved grants on its website, www.us-gsk.com.
After the jump - have the tides finally turned for Big Pharma?
GSK’s new initiative may come as a pleasant surprise to industry watchdogs -- despite the boggling numbers involved in the Pfizer settlement, some skeptics refuse to believe such cases will actually have an impact on the pharmaceutical industry. For example, the $2.3 billion settlement only represents about three weeks of Pfizer’s profits. In a September 3 Washington Post article, Sidney Wolfe, the director of the Public Citizen’s Research Health Group, commented that the Pfizer settlement “may sound large, but it’s not enough to ensure drug companies will curb their bad behavior.” For example, the Pfizer settlement topped a landmark settlement against Eli Lilly in January of 2009, where Lilly paid more than $1.4 billion to resolve allegations that it improperly marketed the drug Zyprexa.
Hopefully the Pfizer settlement will send a strong message to drugmakers that in an age where legislators are struggling to make health care more affordable, neither pharma-industry employees nor the public will tolerate unethical marketing practices.
