J&J Starts Disclosing Drug Unit's Payments To Doctors >JNJ

8th Jul 2010 20:49

By Peter Loftus Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) publicly disclosed payments to doctors for the first time, becoming the latest drug maker to try to improve transparency surrounding its marketing practices. But if investors want to browse the J&J data or look at the big picture, they are in for some work. The information about J&J's payments to individual doctors is spread across at least three reports posted on websites of the various operating companies of J&J's pharmaceutical unit. And J&J isn't publicly disclosing aggregate numbers for how much it spent or how many doctors received money, as some rivals have done. J&J's pharmaceutical divisions began posting the names of doctors and the amounts they received from J&J on several company websites on June 30, said spokesman Mark Wolfe. The data cover payments made during the first three months of 2010. Like other drug makers, J&J, of New Brunswick, N.J., pays doctors and health-care professionals to serve as consultants for research, safety surveillance and other matters, and to speak to other doctors about uses of its products. Such practices, however, have come under fire in recent years from critics who say the payments can taint drug research and medical practice. In certain cases, the government has accused drug makers of paying doctors as part of efforts to illegally promote unapproved uses of their drugs. Critics say public disclosures of the payments will foster greater accountability, and inform patients as to whether their doctors have financial relationships with manufacturers of the products they prescribe. Drug companies have defended the payments as necessary to gain physician insight into drug research and clinical practices. The new health-care overhaul law requires makers of prescription drugs and medical devices to report physician-payment data to the government, which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will make available on a public website. The annual reporting is to begin in 2013. J&J and several other drug manufacturers had already pledged to publicly disclose physician-payment data before the law was enacted. Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY), Pfizer Inc. (PFE), GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK, GSK.LN), Merck & Co. (MRK) and Cephalon Inc. (CEPH) have begun posting payment data online. Some, including Pfizer, Lilly and Cephalon, have been required to post such payment information under terms of settlements of government investigations of marketing practices. J&J announced in May 2009 that it would voluntarily begin disclosing physician payments in the first half of 2010 on the respective websites of its U.S. pharmaceutical divisions, which include Ortho-McNeil-Janssen and Centocor Ortho Biotech. The company said it would expand its reporting to include its medical-device and diagnostics unit next year. "We have an ongoing commitment to ethical and transparent interactions with medical professionals," Wolfe said. The new data cover payments exceeding $25 made directly and indirectly to U.S. physicians for participation in a speaker bureau or for providing consulting services in support of one of J&J's U.S. marketed products. J&J will post the reports quarterly beginning in September. The longest report, at 18 pages, was for J&J's Ortho-McNeil-Janssen unit, which markets antipsychotic Risperdal, pain drug Duragesic and Concerta for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Many doctors listed received several thousand dollars each from J&J, and at least a few exceeded $20,000. Some companies have disclosed aggregate numbers for physician payments. Pfizer, for instance, said in March it paid $35 million to about 4,500 health-care providers in the second half of 2009. In December, Glaxo said it paid $14.6 million to 3,700 health professionals in the second quarter of 2009. But J&J isn't releasing any aggregate numbers, Wolfe said. "There are no aggregates as each link represents an individual legal entity that provided payments to U.S. physicians during the first quarter of 2010," spokesman Wolfe said. Here are some links to the J&J physician-payment reports: --Ortho-McNeil-Janssen: http://www.pharmgroupustransparency.com/sites/default/files/file/Janssen/OMJPI_6292010_1.pdf --Centocor Ortho Biotech: http://www.pharmgroupustransparency.com/sites/default/files/file/COBI/COBI_6292010.pdf --Tibotec: http://www.pharmgroupustransparency.com/sites/default/files/file/Tibotec_Therapeutics/Tibotec_6292010.pdf -By Peter Loftus, Dow Jones Newswires; +1-215-656-8289; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 08, 2010 15:49 ET (19:49 GMT)