DPH Gives Green Light to Big Pharma’s Wining and Dining
Regulators move will re-open door to drug companies' expensive and biased marketing schemes.
Over the objections of a broad coalition of consumer, health care, physician and senior organizations the Public Health Council, voted this week to enact final regulations on meals provided by the drug and medical device industry to doctors and other prescribers. The regulations approved Wednesday, Nov. 21, defined “modest” meals, as whatever a doctor would order on his or her own, opening the door for unlimited wining and dining of physicians by Big Pharma.
By state law, all Department of Public Health (DPH) regulations must be approved by the Public Health Council, comprised of 14 members of the public, in addition to the Commissioner of Public Health. This was the first meeting chaired by Interim Commissioner Dr. Lauren Smith.
The final regulations implement a law passed last summer to relax state restrictions on meals provided by pharmaceutical and medical device companies to doctors and other prescribers. Under the previous law, meals were only allowed to be provided in clinical settings. The amended statute permitted “modest meals and refreshments” to be offered at educational programs outside of a health care setting, such as a restaurant.
The final regulations ignored the legislative direction to limit permitted meals to those considered modest, and instead defined “modest” as “similar to what a health care practitioner might purchase when dining at his or her own expense”. As a result, drug companies are now free to ply doctors with lavish multi-course meals and drinks, paid for by pharmaceutical industry marketing budgets, and ultimately tacked on to the price of prescriptions.
Authors
Deirdre Cummings
Legislative Director, MASSPIRG
Deirdre runs MASSPIRG’s public health, consumer protection and tax and budget programs. Deirdre has led campaigns to improve public records law and require all state spending to be transparent and available on an easy-to-use website, close $400 million in corporate tax loopholes, protect the state’s retail sales laws to reduce overcharges and preserve price disclosures, reduce costs of health insurance and prescription drugs, and more. Deirdre also oversees a Consumer Action Center in Weymouth, Mass., which has mediated 17,000 complaints and returned $4 million to Massachusetts consumers since 1989. Deirdre currently resides in Maynard, Mass., with her family. Over the years she has visited all but one of the state's 351 towns — Gosnold.
