The Nuances about Pharma Payments to Doctors

You see it all over the internet. From putting people on ventilators during Covid, to pushing vaccines, to the normal every day payments from Big Pharma to doctors to push medications.

Social media is full of these accusations of people, governments and corporations paying off medical personnel.

I can definitely see how the impression of impropriety is huge. Imagine your doctor advised you to take a certain medication. You did some research and found out the doctor took money from the manufacturer of that drug.

What would you think about the doctor’s judgment?

It may not be a direct payment either. It may be:

• Free meals

• Tickets to sporting events

• Conferences in exotic locations

• Consulting work

• Research grants

Some journalists have looked into it. The Website Pro Public has even created a database. Just enter your doctor’s name (and maybe a little more information) and the state they’re in. The database will let you know how much money the doctor received from the pharmaceutical industry.

They will also break it down by product. Unfortunately it only has data up until 2018.

I tried to type in the name ‘Anthony Fauci’ but nothing came up.

I also typed in the name of my brother. He’s an ophthalmologist. Looked like he took $234 total in 2018. From a host of different product manufacturers. I have a feeling that didn’t influence him too much.

The truth is that this stuff happens in many different industries.

I used to work in manufacturing. Supply chain in particular. I was the one who helped decide which suppliers would receive our company’s business for raw material and components.

When suppliers visited me, it was almost a given that they would take me out to dinner. We had someone in our department we used to call ‘Sir Lunch-a-lot’. It seemed like every day he had another supplier taking him out at noon.

They would also offer us sports tickets. Or trinkets with their logos on it.

Fortunately, my companies had strict policies on what their supply chain people could and could not accept. Other than the odd golf shirt and meals, we really didn’t receive anything else.

What I harped on with the suppliers all the time was to make my job easier.

• Give me a great price for your product

• Solve a manufacturing problem we are having

• Get the product to me with the lowest lead time and be on time

• Don’t sell me defective product

I’m pretty sure most doctors want good things to happen with their patients. They want pharmaceutical products that can meet those goals.

Of course they are also tempted by the ‘incentives’ from their suppliers.

If the drug manufacturers provide great products, they will receive a huge amount of business from the doctors.

Great performance of the product should completely trump all the incentives pharma pays out to doctors.

Find a doctor that is more interested in your health than the payments pharmaceutical companies offer them. Ask them about any payments you find. See if they have some kind of policy in their office about accepting ‘gifts’. If they push a medication you’re not comfortable with, push back on them to understand why.

If they don’t give you an answer you want, find another doctor. At least get a second opinion.