Industry Payments to Doctors Tied to Nonrecommended, Low-Value Drug Use
Medically reviewed by Drugs.com.
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Oct. 27, 2023 -- Industry payments to physicians are associated with nonrecommended and low-value drugs, according to a study published online Oct. 25 in The BMJ.
Aaron P. Mitchell, M.D., M.P.H., from the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and colleagues estimated the association between oncologists' receipt of payments from the pharmaceutical industry and delivery of nonrecommended or low-value interventions among their patients in a cohort study. Participants were Medicare beneficiaries with a diagnosis of incident cancer at risk for denosumab for castration-sensitive prostate cancer, granulocyte colony stimulating factors (GCSF) for patients at low risk for neutropenic fever, nab-paclitaxel for cancers with no evidence of superiority over paclitaxel, and a branded drug in settings where a generic or biosimilar version was available.
The researchers found that the unadjusted proportion of patients who received nonrecommended denosumab was 31.4 and 49.5 percent for those whose oncologists had not and had received payment, respectively; the corresponding values were 26.6 versus 32.1 percent for GCSF, 7.3 versus 15.1 percent for nab-paclitaxel, and 88.3 versus 83.5 percent for branded drugs. Payments from industry were associated with increased use of denosumab, GCSF, and nab-paclitaxel (17.5, 5.8, and 7.6 percent, respectively), but with reduced use of branded drugs (−4.6 percent) after controlling for patient characteristics and calendar year.
"Given the potential concerns for care quality raised by this study, however, it may be appropriate to re-examine the current status of personal payments from the drug industry to physicians," the authors write.
Several authors disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
© 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted October 2023
Read this next
Recommendations Issued for Palliative RT for Symptomatic Bone Mets
THURSDAY, May 30, 2024 -- In a clinical practice guideline issued by the American Society for Radiation Oncology and published online May 22 in Practical Radiation Oncology...
Living Outside of Comprehensive Cancer Center Catchment Area Tied to Later-Stage Diagnosis
TUESDAY, May 28, 2024 -- Disadvantaged populations and those living outside of a comprehensive cancer center's main catchment area have higher odds of receiving a diagnosis of...
Disparities Seen in Cancer Treatment Delivery at Minority-Serving Hospitals
TUESDAY, May 28, 2024 -- There are systemic disparities in definitive cancer treatment delivery at minority-serving hospitals (MSHs) versus non-MSHs, according to a study...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.