Australia to control doctors' gifts/perks

The head of Australia's competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Graeme Samuel, has proposed tougher regulations to control the "perks and gifts" offered by pharmaceutical companies to doctors as an inducement to get them to prescribe their medicines.

This action follows accusations that the companies are improperly influencing doctors to promote, in particular, expensive but unproven cancer treatments. Mr Samuel, however, also stated he was virtually powerless to change the system.

In a draft determination, the ACCC said that regulations to stop drug companies from currying favor with doctors or advertising medicines to consumers were ineffective. The pharmaceutical industry regulates itself through a code of conduct, with fines of up to A$200,000 ($152,740) for breaches, but the ACCC found that these fines were rarely imposed and, when they were, most were at the lower end of the scale.