From the Pink Sheet:
Pfizer is the fifth pharma company to post its payments to healthcare professionals but the first to include payments to principal investigators and institutions for conducting clinical trials.
The company posted the information on March 31, announcing that it paid a total of $35 million to 4,500 health care professionals for speaking, consulting and research services. The figure also includes meals and travel reimbursement. Of this sum, approximately $15.3 million went to research organizations for new clinical trials initiated after July 1, 2009, and for ongoing or new research between July 1 and December 31, 2009.
Pfizer said the clinical trial payments cover participant recruitment, coordinating and conducting the clinical trails and completing compliance activities to ensure regulatory requirements are met.
Pfizer was required to post all payments or transfers of value to physicians, including those relating to research, under a corporate integrity agreement with HHS' Office of Inspector General. The CIA accompanied Pfizer's $2.3 billion settlement with the Department of Justice to resolve allegations of off-label marketing of four drugs and kickbacks to healthcare providers involving nine other drugs.
The company's payment report also specifies non-cash payments, such as for meals or educations items worth $25 or more and totaling $500 or more during the six-month period. Pfizer is the first company to report these non-cash expenditures.
Lilly was the first to post payments to healthcare providers for consulting and speaking engagements, followed by Merck, GlaxoSmithKline and Cephalon. Cephalon was the first to do so under a CIA, which required it to report figures for a full year. The other three posted data for a single quarter.
Lilly's Top Speakers Earn $150,000 In Six Months
Cephalon has been the only company to clearly designate its highest-paid doctors, breaking out payments in $10,000 increments as required under its CIA. Pfizer's CIA gave it the option of listing the payments in $10,000 increments or in the actual amount paid and the company chose to report individual sums for 4,856 entities.
A Pfizer spokesperson said nine individuals received $50,000 to $150,000 and the remainder received less than $50,000. The company set a cap of $50,000 per year for individual speakers. But those with particular expertise can be cleared to receive a maximum of $150,000.
By comparison, Cephalon paid three doctors more than $140,000 in speaking fees during the year. And in a one quarter period GlaxoSmithKline's top speaker earned $99,375, Lilly's highest paid physician received $70,050 and Merck's top earner received $22,600.
Companies are now required to post payments to healthcare professionals under a provision included in the health care reform legislation signed into law last week. The law requires reporting of payments for consulting and speaking engagements, the value of certain meals and non-cash items like educational materials.
Pfizer said it will post its next report on March 31, 2011, which will include a full year of data for 2010 and include the value of all financial transactions, regardless of value. The company will post payment reports quarterly beginning in June 2011.
