GSK transparency drive on physician payments

Andrew Witty, chief executive of UK-based drug major GlaxoSmithKline, has announced a new policy on physician payments which follows recent action by US peers Eli Lilly and Merck & Co (Marketletters September 29 and October 6). In addition to making public the identities of doctors receiving payments and the amounts, Mr Witty also promised a cap of $150,000 per year for each recipient in the USA.

The GSK move came after the two drug majors decided to apply the terms of the US Physician Payments Sunshine Act, which is held up in Congress, that would create a federal register of pharmaceutical firms' payments to health care professionals (Marketletters passim). With elections on November 4 and both a new presidency and congressional session (the 111th) due to begin in January next year, the chances of legislation being carried this year are considered to be on the low side.

A spokesperson for the UK pharmaceutical giant told the Marketletter that the cap on US physician payments is in place, effective from October 22. Details of the disclosure process have yet to be confirmed, she added.