Does Your Doctor Care More About Drug Company Payoffs Than About You?

And 81 per cent of the nearly 1,200 people surveyed were aware that doctors are given incentives to prescribe them certain drugs.

It's common knowledge that doctors are often "wined and dined" by sales representatives of pharmaceutical companies. To promote a new medication, primary care physicians may be given free travel, accommodation, and food at luxury resorts to attend educational seminars funded and provided by the company that makes the drug.

Patients also receive incentives to try new medications. Doctors are often given samples to give to their patients, a free 7- to 30-day supply the drug that will later have to be paid by insurance of out of pocket. And for the 20 per cent of patients who see an advertisement for a medication on television and the ask their doctors for a prescription, 59 per cent of doctors will comply.

Just how much do doctors get paid for prescribing new drugs? There are no reliable figures for the value of trips to golf resorts in Florida or beach resorts in Hawaii where "training" seminars are held, but the tiny state of Vermont made an effort to find out just how much its doctors received from big drug companies in cold, hard cash and restaurant meals. The Vermont Attorney General made an effort to determine the numbers in responding to a proposal for legislation in 2009.

• One psychiatrist received cash incentive payments totaling $112,000 in a single year, 2008.
• Ten doctors and nurse practitioners received payments of $50,000 or more.
• Twenty doctors and nurses received payments of $20,000 or more.
• One doctor received $15,000 in free food.
• The average cash incentive to a doctor in Vermont was $13,209.

However, 80 per cent of the payments Vermont doctors received were classified as "trade secrets," and not included in the totals. This suggests that the average incentive pay to a doctor in this small, rural state, where medical costs are relatively low, was at least $65,000 a year! There is every reason to believe that many doctors in higher-income states are paid much, much more.

Do Prescription Company Payoffs to Doctors Really Make a Difference?

But is it really a bad thing for doctors to get paid to prescribe drugs? Isn't this just a harmless source of additional income? One example of just how detrimental Big Pharma kickbacks can be is the story of the diabetes medication sitagliptin, also known as Januvia.

Januvia was heavily promoted when it was introduced to the American market in 2006. A new class of diabetes medication designed to block an enzyme that stimulates the release of stored sugar to the bloodstream, Januvia was one of only two commonly prescribed medications for type 2 diabetes that does not stimulate weight gain. However, there was one major problem with the medication. While it does prevent some of the release of sugar from stores in the liver in type 2 diabetics who absolutely stuff themselves at a meal, it has no effect—or even raises blood sugar levels (a bad thing in diabetes)--in 2 out of 3 diabetics that use it. Eventually Januvia was offered in a combination with metformin, a much less expensive drug that actually does work.

Even more distressing than the fact that this expensive drug did not actually work, however, was the   finding that use of the drug doubles the rates of cancer in its users. What was the establishment line on this horrible disclosure? In an explanation to diabetes activist Jenny Ruhl of his comments in Annals of Internal Medicine, Dr. Mark R. Goldstein disclosed that the maker of the drug knew that it would increase deaths from cancer even before they released it:

"Extrapolating the data from the New Drug Application suggests that this has the potential to cause 30,000 extra cancers each year in the US. Since there are about 1.5 million new cases of cancer each year in this country, 30,000 more doesn't make much of a 'blip' on the radar screen."

So that's how the drug establishment regards your case of drug-induced cancer, not even a blip on their radar screen. Similar side effects exist for drugs promoted to treat depression and diabetes. Don't let these unnecessary drug-induced horrors happen to you. Even if your doctor is a skilled and caring physician whom you trust, chances are you should ask many questions about any drug you see heavily promoted on TV. And don't be afraid to ask you doctors whether a drug company pays them to write your prescriptions.