The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Washington, DC, is revising its code of ethics to ban the use of extravagant incentives for physicians, according to a Reuters report.
New guidelines will prohibit drug salespeople from plying doctors with tickets to sports and entertainment events. Other rules will cap spending on dinners at $75 and mandate that an industry expert be in attendance along with the rep and the physician.
The move comes in response to complaints that doctors were selecting which drugs to prescribe based on the perks rather than on scientific evidence as to their effectiveness.
Pharmaceutical companies spent $13.2 billion marketing to physicians in 2000, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Menlo Park, CA.
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