Pfizer said Monday it will start reporting the bucks they shell out to doctors each year. Dollars spent on clinical trials, consulting gigs, speeches, meals, and gifts will all be tallied and posted to the company’s Web site for all to see. 

Pfizer pledged to disclose payments that total more than $500 yearly, including non-monetary items whose value exceeds $25.

“We think this disclosure is actually a natural progression of the work we’ve already done in the area of transparency,” said Kristen Neese, a Pfizer spokeswoman. “Publicly sharing these details in a uniform manner is the best way to provide a complete picture of what our relationships are with doctors.”

The first update will be posted online in early 2010, and will include payments from July 2009 onward.  

Pfizer joins a few other companies on the pharma transparency bandwagon. Late last year, Eli Lilly, Merck, and GlaxoSmithKline all announced that they would divulge the info.  

At present, each company is setting its own rules. Last month, however, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Herb Kohl (D-WI) introduced the 

, which, if passed, would require all pharma and biotech companies to divulge such information. Those that failed to comply would incur a $1 million dollar fine. The only difference between the 

 and Pfizer’s plan is the amount-Grassley and Kohl say all payments over $100 should reported.

“Shedding light on industry payments to physicians would be good for the system,” Grassley said in a press release. “Transparency fosters accountability, and the public has a right to know about financial relationships.”

The new number is an update from a similar 2007 bill that set a $500 reporting requirement. The old version never made it through Congress.  

Dr. Ted Epperly, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, said the new version approaches micromanagement. “It’s a bit regressive. It goes backwards instead of forwards in terms of reporting requirements,” said Epperly. “We agree that we ought to have transparency, openness and honesty on this, [but] there can be a point where it just crosses the line of being too burdensome.” 

But Big Pharma won’t have a choice if the bill is pushed through. And with the state of the economy, and President Obama promoting transparency in big business, this time around the 

Articles

News Analysis

Pfizer is the latest addition to Big Pharma's data disclosure club; the drug giant will be disclosing all physician payments that total more that $500 a year.

Pharma Beats Sunshine Act to the Punch

St. Louis-based KV announced Monday that it will cut 700 jobs-about 40 percent of their total workforce-in an effort to get the company back on track after suspending manufacturing and shipment in late January. The company voluntarily recalled its products after reports of oversized pills and faulty manufacturing practices sparked multiple recalls beginning in November 2008. 

“KV Pharmaceutical plans to emerge from these challenges on a solid foundation of a smaller, more focused organization and a return to providing excellent products to our customers,” said David Van Vliet, interim president and CEO in a press release. KV expects to rehire some former employees once production and manufacturing resumes. 

Meanwhile, pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline announced more layoffs last Thursday as they revealed an updated restructuring program designed to save $2.4 billion annually by 2011. GSK is waiting to disclose exactly how many jobs will be cut until after discussions with employees and trade unions, but analysts say it could be as many as 10,000. 

“We are absolutely focused on making sure that we make reductions in areas where we believe we can [without taking] any crazy risks, and then be very open to reinvesting in the areas where we think we've got growth for the future,” CEO Andrew Witty said in an interview that accompanied the fourth quarter sales report. 

The announcement came on the tails of a 10 percent net profit loss in the fourth quarter of 2008. Generic competition with key products in the US, deteriorating Avandia (rosiglitazone) sales (40 percent drop in 2008), and pharmaceutical price cuts in Japan hit the company hard last year. Generic infiltration caused fourth quarter sales for three big moneymakers to plummet: Lamictal (lamotrigine), down 68 percent; Wellbutrin XL (bupropion), 43 percent; and Coreg IR (carvedilol), a whopping 93 percent. 

Job cuts are part of a larger restructuring plan that GSK leaders hope will wean the company off blockbuster dependence. Breaking into emerging markets, boosting vaccines with more dollars, and creating an attractive small molecule product portfolio are at the top of GSK’s to-do list.

Since the plan was unveiled in November 2007, 10,000 jobs have already been cut, reducing GSK’s global head count to just over 100,000. 

While the workforce is slimming down, four acquisitions in the last six months have helped GSK beef up its pipeline and expand into new territory. Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Genelabs Technologies added small molecules and Hepatitis C prospects to the pipeline mix, while Bristol-Myers Squibb Egypt and Pakistan tapped emerging markets-one of Witty’s key strategies for 2009. Other prospects on the 2009 horizon include Brazil and India, and further expansion into former hard-to-reach markets in the Middle East. 

GlaxoSmithKline to lay off thousands while embattled KV Pharma drops 40 percent of its work force in latest wave of cuts.

Pharmaceutical Executive-02-12-2009

Pharma Beats Sunshine Act to the Punch

GSK and KV Downsize in the Wake of Q4 Numbers