Cancer Care

Big business is lining up behind a Senate bill that would require drug and device makers to publicly report their payments to doctors.

If that seems surprising, consider that Vermont, Minnesota and a few other states already have such laws in place, and others are considering legislation. Industry may have decided it’s better to deal with a single, federal law rather than a patchwork of state rules.

In letters supporting the bill, PhRMA and Advamed, the drug and device trade groups, both say it’s key that the bill expressly overrides any state laws requiring disclosure.

Those letters were posted online today, along with letters from AstraZeneca and Merck, who also come out in favor of the bill (and also highlight the importance of a single, national standard). Eli Lilly got on board last week. Language adding preemption of state laws was added to the bill after discussions with industry.

The bill, whose key backers include Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), would require companies to disclose payments to docs who received $500 or more from a single company over the course of a year, starting in 2011. Total payments are likely to run into the billions of dollars.

Sixty physicians gathered at the Huntington Medical Research Institutes (HMRI) recently for an update on liver diseases, including liver cancer and its rising incidence rates and to hear distinguished guest speaker Dr. Willis Maddrey, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, where he also serves as vice president for clinical affairs, discuss the growing problem of Hepatitis C and liver cancer. Maddrey expressed optimism about research underway on new technology to evaluate liver fibrosis without liver biopsy, explaining that fibrosis, or scarring, usually precedes cancer and is a critical observation for accurate diagnosis and treatment planning.
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