Loading ...“Insane”: US Physicians Received More Than $12 Billion From Pharmaceutical And Medical Device Industry, New Research Finds
Despite potential conflicts of interest, more than half of eligible physicians received a payment from a pharmaceutical drug or device maker over 10 years.
Dr. Foy said he worries that conflicts of interest directly related to physician–industry payments may lead to overly enthusiastic recommendations or guidelines from medical organizations to use new products, even if they have not been sufficiently tested or where the evidence is not strong enough to recommend them over an old standard, or in some cases, nothing at all.
Additionally, Dr. Foy said a “major problem” with physician–industry payments is that they “have a way of tilting physicians sympathy toward industry” and the industry’s “medical advancements” which encourage physicians to more willingly adopt new products for the sake of “industry advancement,” even if they don’t have a direct conflict of interest with that particular product.