Drugs

Doctors Taking Industry $$ Prescribe More Brands: Propublica

A new ProPublica analysis finds that doctors who receive payments from industry tend to prescribe more brand-name medications than their colleagues who don’t. ProPublica says its analysis doesn’t prove industry payments sway doctors to prescribe particular drugs, or even a particular company’s drugs. “Rather, it shows that payments are associated with an approach to prescribing that, writ large, benefits drug companies’ bottom line,” it says.

“It again confirms the prevailing wisdom … that there is a relationship between payments and brand-name prescribing,” comments Harvard Medical School associate professor Aaron Kesselheim. “This feeds into the ongoing conversation about the propriety of these sorts of relationships. Hopefully we’re getting past the point where people will say, ‘Oh, there’s no evidence that these relationships change physicians’ prescribing practices.’”

ProPublica has been tracking drug company payments to doctors since 2010 through a project known as Dollars for Docs. “There’s wide variation from state to state when it comes to the proportion of prescribers who take industry money,” the analysis found. The rate in Nevada, Alabama, Kentucky and South Carolina was twice as high as in Vermont, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Maine. “But overall, payments are widespread,” it says. “Nationwide, nearly nine in 10 cardiologists who wrote at least 1,000 prescriptions for Medicare patients received payments from a drug or device company in 2014, while seven in 10 internists and family practitioners did.”

Gupta Raises Concerns About Overton’s Independence, Ideology

FDA commissioner nominee Heidi Overton’s responses on vaccines, contraception and abortion medication during her 9/24 Senate confirmation hearing raise concerns that ideology could influence her decision-making if she takes over the agency, MSNBC senior medical analyst Dr. Vin Gupta said Friday. Gupta was particularly critical of Overton’

Overton Confirmation Remains Uncertain After Senate Hearing

FDA commissioner nominee Heidi Overton emerged from her Senate confirmation hearing Thursday (see earlier story) without resolving questions about whether she has enough Republican support to advance — and with a rapidly narrowing window for confirmation before the midterm elections. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing provided few

FDA Classifies Boston Scientific Imager II Catheter Recall as Class I

FDA has classified Boston Scientific's recall of its Imager II Angiographic Catheters as Class I because a manufacturing problem could cause catheter tips to degrade and detach, potentially resulting in life-threatening complications. The agency announced the Class I classification 9/25, updating an Early Alert it issued

FDA Approves Gazyva for Childhood-Onset Idiopathic Nephrotic Syndrome

FDA has approved Roche’s Gazyva (obinutuzumab) for reducing the risk of relapse in adults and children aged 2 and older with frequently relapsing or steroid-dependent, childhood-onset idiopathic nephrotic syndrome who are in remission. The expanded approval covers the use of the CD20-directed antibody beyond its existing

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Gupta Raises Concerns About Overton’s Independence, Ideology

Overton Confirmation Remains Uncertain After Senate Hearing

FDA Classifies Boston Scientific Imager II Catheter Recall as Class I

FDA Approves Gazyva for Childhood-Onset Idiopathic Nephrotic Syndrome