Patients trust their doctors to do what is right for them. So a doctor being paid for prescribing or administering certain drugs by the drug companies poses a natural conflict.
Drug rebates have mostly been prohibited. But doctors can still receive rebates for intravenous or injected medicines.
A New York Times article described how two major drug companies, Amgen and Johnson & Johnson, paid millions of dollars to doctors for administering their anemia medicines to patients. And since 1991, the average dosage of these medicines given to U.S. patients has tripled. Meanwhile, the FDA released a recent report stating there was no evidence that the medicines improved or extended the lives of cancer patients.
The law needs to change to prevent this possible conflict between medicinal benefits for the patient and financial benefits for the doctor.
Posted by Andie Clum
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