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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Big Pharma and the Medicaid Advisory Panel

Minnesota is being recognized for a "groundbreaking" law that requires doctors and pharmacists serving on state advisory panels to fully disclose all financial ties to pharmaceutical companies. According to the article, medical ethicists are concerned with the potential influence pharmaceutical companies can have on the way millions of dollars in the state is spent. With $240 million dollars at stake in Minnesota's Medicaid system, is full disclosure enough to protect honest deliberations? Or should we prohibit doctors from serving on advisory panels that receive financial contributions from pharmaceutical companies?

1 comment:

Looking2evolve said...

Legally Blonde touches on a problem that permeates the entire medical profession. It is no secret that drug companies spend billions of dollars each year on "incentives" for hospital staff to encourage prescription of a particular drug. It is akin to Lexis and Westlaw representatives wooing law students with freebies to encourage use (often excessive) of online legal research. The difference of course, is that the American public is not paying for the wasted online research.