Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, in formal testimony today, called again for a prohibition against drug company gifts and other benefits provided to doctors that may improperly influence health care decisions.
Pharmaceutical drug companies spend more than $11 billion annually to market prescription drugs – most of it directed at health care providers.
The pharmaceutical industry, hospitals and physicians groups have adopted “codes of ethics” to prevent conflicts of interest – but Blumenthal said these codes are virtually unenforceable and meaningless, and must be made law.
Blumenthal’s office has ongoing lawsuits and investigations related to widespread conflicts of interest involving drug company gifts to health care providers.
“We must stop improper impacts and influence of money on health care providers from the pharmaceutical drug companies,” Blumenthal said. “Shocking recent disclosures about Merck’s widespread ghost-writer reports – with payments to prestigious health care providers – vividly demonstrate the audacity of pharmaceutical drug company monetary influence.”
