Interesting bill introduced in the 111th Congress (SB 301) by Mr. Grassley. After recent settlements involving Medtronics and then a host of other medical device manufacturers in late 2007 (Johnson & Johnson subsidiary DePuy Orthopaedics, Zimmer, Biomet and Smith & Nephew) who provided lavish trips and sometimes sham consulting and IP royalty payments to physicians allegedly to induce their ordering of the firms' devices, the Congress is considering forcing pharma and medical device manufacturers to disclose all financial arrangements with physicians and medical groups greater than $100/year. The financial arrangements would be posted in a manner that would be accessible to the public. Failure to disclose would subject the companies to up to $150,000 (if innocent) or $1m Civil Monetary Pentalties if knowingly. It is of note that disclosure was used by the OIG in the deferred prosecution agreements with these companies. See, for example, Zimmer's home page at www.zimmer.com.
Search Results - THOMAS (Library of Congress).
[...] materials at healthcare institutions as well as the so-called “Sunshine Laws” at the federal and state levels regarding transparency of pharma and medical device marketing and financial [...]
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