A financial analysis research exhibits that oncologists’ prescribing habits change after they have been visited by pharmaceutical gross sales reps — and it additionally exhibits the adjustments don’t prolong sufferers’ lives.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Pharmaceutical firm reps have been visiting docs for many years to inform them concerning the newest medication. However how does the observe have an effect on sufferers? A gaggle of economists tried to reply that query. NPR prescribed drugs correspondent Sydney Lupkin stories.
SYDNEY LUPKIN, BYLINE: When drug firm reps go to docs, it normally contains lunch or dinner and a dialog a few new drug. These interactions are tracked as funds to physicians, they usually work. That’s, docs prescribe about 5% extra oncology medication following a go to from a pharmaceutical consultant. That is in line with a brand new research printed by the Nationwide Bureau of Financial Analysis this month. However the researchers additionally discovered that the observe would not make most cancers sufferers reside longer. This is research writer Colleen Carey, assistant professor of economics and public coverage at Cornell College.
COLLEEN CAREY: It doesn’t appear that this fee induces physicians to change to medication with a mortality profit relative to the drug the affected person would have gotten in any other case.
LUPKIN: For his or her analysis, she and her colleagues used Medicare claims knowledge and the Open Funds Database, which tracks drug firm funds to docs. Whereas the sufferers being prescribed these new most cancers medication did not reside longer, Carey additionally factors out that they did not reside shorter lives both. It was about equal. The trade commerce group, which is named PhRMA, has a code of conduct for the way gross sales reps ought to work together with docs. The code was up to date in 2022, says Jocelyn Ulrich, the group’s vice chairman of coverage and analysis.
JOCELYN ULRICH: We’re guaranteeing that there’s a fixed consideration from the trade and guaranteeing that these are very significant and necessary interactions and that they are compliant.
LUPKIN: The code says that if drug reps are shopping for docs a meal, it should be modest and cannot be a part of an leisure or leisure occasion. The aim needs to be training. Ulrich factors out that most cancers deaths within the U.S. have declined by 33% for the reason that Nineteen Nineties, and new medicines are part of that.
Sydney Lupkin, NPR Information.
Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content might not be in its closing type and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability might fluctuate. The authoritative report of NPR’s programming is the audio report.