Physicians who receive gifts from drug companies are more likely to prescribe or recommend their medications, according to a study published Thursday in The BMJ.
Researchers examined data from almost 46 million prescriptions given to about 10.5 million Medicare recipients. The prescriptions were written by about 624,000 physicians between the last five months of 2013 and all 12 months of 2014.
The study looked at the habits of cardiologists and hematologists prescribing blood thinners and endocrinologists giving diabetes medications.
Here are three things to know about the study's findings:
- When a drug company spends $13 on a physician, they will see 94 additional days of prescriptions for brand-name blood thinners and 107 additional days of brand-name diabetes drugs. These values refer to the actual days-supply of medication a patient picks up at a pharmacy.
- Researchers found if a pharmaceutical sales representative takes a physician out to lunch, "they could expect three months of a medication being prescribed over a generic medication," according to Will Fleischman, lead author of the study and clinical assistant professor in the department of emergency medicine at the University of Maryland School Of Medicine in Baltimore.
- In terms of diabetes drugs, payments for food, beverages and educational materials impacted prescription rates less than gifts like travel, speaking engagements and consulting fees, which resulted in 375 more days of filled prescriptions.
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