According to an article in the current issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, while almost 84 percent of respondents to a survey said they had some sort of relationship with industry during the previous year, this is 12 percent fewer than was reported in 2004. The areas explored included drug samples, food and beverage, expense reimbursement for trips and CME activities, and speaker fees.
While there's a fee to read the full paper, here's a recap of some of the findings on DOTmed, and here's USAToday's take on it. John Mack over at the Pharma Marketing Blog had an interesting take. He notes the "sharp drop in % of physicians receiving payments for consulting, participation on speaker bureaus and advisory boards, and for enrolling patients in clinical trials. That percent decreased from 28% in 2004 to 14% in 2009." In addition to the usual reasons for the drop—that organizations are cracking down on these relationships, and that it's due to the physician payment disclosure requirements some pharma companies have to follow now due to legal settlements, and all will have to follow once the Sunshine Act fully kicks in--Mack thinks it might also have to do with "the decreasing number of new brand name drugs coming to market in last several years."
