A report has found that almost six in 10 doctors in the United States received more than $12 billion in payments from Big Pharma firms between 2013 and 2022.
This is according to a study done by researchers at Pennsylvania State University, which found that around 57 percent of doctors received approximately $12.1 billion from medical device manufacturers and pharmaceutical drug makers between 2013 and 2022.
“Despite evidence that financial conflicts of interest may influence physician prescribing and may damage patients’ trust in medical professionals, such payments remain pervasive,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers used data from the platform Open Payments – a
publicly accessible national database where drug and medical device
companies disclose payments and gifts made to physicians – for their
study. They found that from August 2013 to August 2022, American drug
and device manufacturers made more than 85 million individual payments to 826,313 of the more than 1.4 million eligible doctors in the United States.
The payments that the researchers included in their study were
both in cash and non-cash equivalents. Most went to consulting services
and non-consulting fees, such as payments for serving as a speaker.
Physicians were also showered with food and beverages, travel and
lodging, entertainment, education, grants, charitable contributions,
honoraria and other kinds of non-cash gifts.
Orthopedic surgeons received largest total sum
Thirty-nine medical specialties were analyzed in the study and the
researchers found that orthopedic surgeons received the largest total
sum of payments, at $1.36 billion. After orthopedic surgeons, the
specialties that received the largest total sum of payments were
neurologists and psychiatrists, who received $1.32 billion, and
cardiologists, who received $1.29 billion.
Although the median payment to doctors was $48, payments to the top
0.1 percent of doctors were far higher and differed depending on
specialty. The average amount paid to this top class of physician was
$4,826,944 for orthopedic surgeons, $3,197,675 for cardiologists and
$2,588,819 for neurologists and psychiatrists.
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Other major earning specialties include hematology and oncology
($825 million), internal medicine ($588 million), endocrinology ($546
million), family medicine ($479 million), rheumatology, allergy and
immunology ($464 million), dermatology ($462 million) and
gastroenterology ($441 million). The lowest earners were pediatricians.
Twenty-five drugs and medical devices were associated with the
largest payments. Roughly 94 percent of payments were associated with
one or more of the 25 marketed medical products.
For drugs, the largest payments were for the blood thinners
rivaroxaban – sold by Bayer under the brand name Xarelto – and apixaban –
sold by Pfizer as Eliquis. Both are medicines used to prevent blood
clots and stroke in people with atrial fibrillation.
They were followed by the psoriasis drug adalimumab, sold by
AbbVie as Humira; and canaglifozin and empagliflozin, both used to treat
Type 2 diabetes. The former is sold by Johnson & Johnson as
Invokana and the latter by Eli Lilly as Jardiance.
The top medical device related to industry payment was the Da
Vinci surgical system – a robotic surgical system. More than 60,000
surgeons globally are trained on the Da Vinci, and manufacturer
Intuitive Surgical is on an aggressive campaign to get more surgeons to
train to use it.
(Article by Ava Grace republished from NaturalNews.com)
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Author: Planet Today
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