Medical-device Companies Pay Doctors More than Pharmaceuticals

The Pharmaceuticals Companies are often criticised for payments when compared to the medical device industry that spends millions of dollars a year on payments to doctors. The Pharmaceuticals company’s payments to the doctors have been examined in recent times. The study was published in Health Affairs.The doctors who work in the drug company receive significant payments are more likely to prescribe that company’s medications, even if they are not the best option for patients. The new study was done by the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics.

The researchers found that the implantable medical device industry like prosthetic knees and hips, pacemakers, and spine spacers spends more than the pharmaceutical industry. Medical-device companies paid $3.67 billion to doctors between 2014 and 2017 which is about 10% more than Pharmaceuticals companies. The $3.67 billion that medical-device companies paid doctors accounts for about 1.7% of the industry’s $211.3 billion revenue during that period. Comparatively, doctor payments account for about 0.24% of  industry revenue.

Alon Bergman, a postdoctoral researcher at the Leonard Davis Institute and a co-author of the study said that this concern is the nature of the discussion that goes on when the or device representative goes and meets with the physician.

Both the medical-device companies and Pharmaceuticals companies have financial ties to doctors, the relationships are different, in terms of which types of doctors receive payments and the purpose of the exchange. Researchers also found differences like payments, with much of the money from device companies going toward training and education. About 30% of doctors received a payment from a device company, while half received money from a drug company.