US Senate reviews drug marketing rules

Pressure to create local and federal registries of pharmaceutical company gifts to physicians has been intensifying in recent weeks, despite opposition which argues that restrictions are difficult to formulate without harming useful contributions by the industry to patient care (Marketletter July 9).

Senators Herb Kohl (Democrat, Wisconsin) and Claire McCaskill (Democrat, Missouri) were reported by the Miami Herald to be planning the establishment of a national registry of gifts and payments to physicians. In late June, Sen Kohl claimed at a hearing of the Senate's Special Committee on Aging that "the drug industry spends $19.0 billion annually on marketing to physicians in the form of gifts, lunches, drug samples and sponsorship of education programs."

Opponents of federal regulation, including the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), argue that "drug samples are aimed at helping patients, not doctors." The group also enforces a marketing code.