Is your pharmacy or doctor involved? Czech: Gifts worth millions to doctors and hospitals revealed

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Last year, 65 pharmaceutical companies paid a total of 221 million francs to doctors, hospitals, expert societies, patient organizations and other institutions in the healthcare sector (previous year: 196 million francs). Novartis is currently the most generous with 31 million francs, followed by Roche (21.9 million francs) and Pfizer (20 million francs). This is demonstrated by an evaluation by the Ringier Axel Springer Research Network. Observers from “Handelszeitung”, “Blick” and “SonntagsBlick” took part in the data evaluation.

Looking back, we see this: Every year the pharmaceutical industry charges more for access to medical professionals and hospitals. In 2015 (when self-regulation of the pharmaceutical industry came into force) all companies paid a total of 141 million francs, this amount has now increased to 221 million. The total of these donations made to doctors and hospitals in the last eight years has reached an astronomical figure of 1.4 billion francs.

Pharmaceutical companies pay doctors conference fees, accommodation expenses, consultancy fees, or sponsor educational events organized by medical networks, hospitals, and quality circles. Additionally, pharmaceutical companies pay hospitals for clinical research projects. Pharmaceutical companies have been disclosing these figures since 2015 due to the intra-industry transparency regulation (Pharmaceutical Cooperation Law).

Pharmaceutical companies transferred approximately 7.5 million francs directly to doctors in 2022; This is one million more than the previous year. The highest amount was received by an osteoporosis specialist living in Lake Geneva. As the “observer” knows, it is paid by a single company: Mylan Pharma GmbH, based in Steinhausen in the canton of Zug, which is part of the international Votaris group. Mylan operates in the pharmaceutical market, among other things, with drugs in the field of osteoporosis.

This is how 221 million are formed

The number of doctors to whom pharmaceutical companies pay conference fees, expenses and consultancy fees increased from 3,289 to 3,698 last year. In 2015, there were still 4,131 physicians whose conference fees and expenses were paid by the pharmaceutical industry, or even on the payroll (consulting roles, speaker fees).

What is the composition of the 221 million francs that flowed from pharmaceuticals to the healthcare sector last year? Companies paid 7.5 million francs directly to doctors; that’s nearly a million more than the previous year (plus 15 percent).

The total amount of sponsorship money flowing from pharmaceutical companies to hospitals, doctor networks, patient organisations, specialist societies and other healthcare organizations reached 124 million (previous year: 106 million Swiss francs plus 17 percent).

Under the term “research and development”, pharmaceutical companies finance hospitals with 89.7 million francs (previous year: 82.4 million francs plus 9 percent) for clinical research projects. It is unknown which hospital benefited; this lack of transparency is justified by research secrecy. This means there is still silence about much of the money flowing into hospitals.

Pharmageld.ch is a project of the Ringier Axel Springer Research Network and the analysis was carried out by Observer, “Handelszeitung”, “Blick” and “Sonntags-Blick”.

Source :Blick