Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Finance, praised Eli Lilly and Company on Tuesday for endorsing a national registry of drug industry payments to medical doctors. The endorsement indicates that transparency's time has come, he said.
Grassley and Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) are co-authors of pending legislation to establish a drug payment registry that Eli Lilly officials said "represents an important step in building public trust in and understanding the relationships between the pharmaceutical and device industries and physicians."
The Association of American Medical Colleges also endorsed the bill, known as the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, S. 2029.
"Eli Lilly deserves credit for its endorsement of the Sunshine Act and the leadership role it is taking for greater transparency in the pharmaceutical industry," Grassley said. "Eli Lilly has been posting online its payments to medical organizations and others. The company's forward-looking endorsement of legislation to require reporting of financial relationships between drug and device makers and physicians will be valuable in building more support for this important reform."
Kohl, chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, said Eli Lilly's endorsement shows that drug payment transparency is "not only sensible, but do-able." He urged the rest of the pharmaceutical industry to follow suit.
Grassley and Kohl introduced the Sunshine Act last fall in response to growing concerns about the lack of disclosure in the drug industry. Grassley is working to include reform legislation in a Medicare bill, which the Senate may consider before its August break.
The bill would require manufacturers of pharmaceutical drugs, devices and biologics to disclose the amount of money they give to doctors through payments, gifts, honoraria, travel and other means.
"Right now the public has no way to know whether a doctor's been given money that might affect prescribing habits," Grassley said. "This bill is about letting the sun shine in so that the public can know. Whether it's dinner at a restaurant or tens of thousands of dollars or more in fees and travel, patients shouldn't be in the dark about whether their doctors are getting money from drug and device makers."
Do you favor transparency when it comes to the drug industry paying doctors for prescribing their drugs? Tell me why at diana.manos@medtechpublishing.com.