Yale School of Medicine Dean Robert Alpern accepted more payments in compensation from the pharmaceutical industry than any other U.S. medical school dean during the 2018 fiscal year.
According to data released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and first published in the Yale Daily News last week, Alpern received $648,183 from the pharmaceutical companies Abbott Laboratories and AbbVie Inc. in 2018. Alpern, who serves on the board of directors of both companies. was the highest-paid physician at Abbvie and second-highest at Abbott.
Of Alpern’s total industry payments from 2018, he also received about $162,000 for food, drink, travel and lodging, the YDN reported.
In a statement Alpern defended his payments, saying they were consistent with those made to other deans who serve on corporate boards. But the 2018 data revealed that the second-highest-paid medical-school dean was the University of Michigan’s Marschall Runge, who received about $282,000 from the industry, the YDN reported.
Alpern arrived at Yale as dean of the medical school in 2004 after serving since 1998 as dean of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He is in the final year of his third three-year term as YSM dean. In December 2018 he announced he would not seek a fourth term after his current term expires later this year.
