Pharmaceutical industry self-regulation and non-transparency : country and company level analysis of payments to healthcare professionals in seven European countries
(2021) In Health Policy 125(7). p.915-922- Abstract
- The European pharmaceutical industry uses the alleged efficacy of self-regulation to question the need for transparency laws similar to the US Physician Payment Sunshine Act. We conducted a comparative analysis of 20 large companies’ payment disclosures in seven European countries in 2017–2019. The data was extracted as part of eurosfordocs.eu, a novel transparency project that scrapes and integrates publicly available databases and disclosures. Our analysis of EUR 735 million showed marked differences in country payment patterns. For example, payment totals per registered doctor were substantially larger in Spain and lowest in Sweden. There were significant country and company differences in individualized data completeness. Only 19% of... (More)
- The European pharmaceutical industry uses the alleged efficacy of self-regulation to question the need for transparency laws similar to the US Physician Payment Sunshine Act. We conducted a comparative analysis of 20 large companies’ payment disclosures in seven European countries in 2017–2019. The data was extracted as part of eurosfordocs.eu, a novel transparency project that scrapes and integrates publicly available databases and disclosures. Our analysis of EUR 735 million showed marked differences in country payment patterns. For example, payment totals per registered doctor were substantially larger in Spain and lowest in Sweden. There were significant country and company differences in individualized data completeness. Only 19% of totals were reported with recipient names in Germany, compared to Ireland (59%), the United Kingdom (60%), Italy (67%), Switzerland (73%), Sweden (79%) and Spain (100%), with little or no improvement over time. Payment data in Spain was particularly difficult to extract. Thus, in no country did self-regulation generate comprehensive individualized data allowing for building an accurate picture of financial relationships between the industry and healthcare professionals. We conclude that the cultures and policies of countries and companies create structural problems of data inaccessibility and incompleteness within the self-regulatory framework. Therefore, this study supports calls for a Europe-wide “Sunshine Act” to achieve real transparency of drug company payments.
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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/14443e3b-1bac-4b58-a1d7-82193e0f4b93
- author
- Mulinari, Shai LU ; Martinon, Luc ; Jachiet, Pierre-Alain and Ozieranski, Piotr
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021-07-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Health Policy
- volume
- 125
- issue
- 7
- pages
- 8 pages
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:34006392
- scopus:85106312291
- ISSN
- 1872-6054
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.healthpol.2021.04.015
- project
- What can be learnt from the new pharmaceutical industry payment disclosures? A network and policy analysis of ties between companies and health professionals and organisations
- Following the money: cross-national study of pharmaceutical industry payments to medical associations and patient organisations
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 14443e3b-1bac-4b58-a1d7-82193e0f4b93
- date added to LUP
- 2021-04-28 12:31:14
- date last changed
- 2024-03-08 11:52:46
@article{14443e3b-1bac-4b58-a1d7-82193e0f4b93,
abstract = {{The European pharmaceutical industry uses the alleged efficacy of self-regulation to question the need for transparency laws similar to the US Physician Payment Sunshine Act. We conducted a comparative analysis of 20 large companies’ payment disclosures in seven European countries in 2017–2019. The data was extracted as part of eurosfordocs.eu, a novel transparency project that scrapes and integrates publicly available databases and disclosures. Our analysis of EUR 735 million showed marked differences in country payment patterns. For example, payment totals per registered doctor were substantially larger in Spain and lowest in Sweden. There were significant country and company differences in individualized data completeness. Only 19% of totals were reported with recipient names in Germany, compared to Ireland (59%), the United Kingdom (60%), Italy (67%), Switzerland (73%), Sweden (79%) and Spain (100%), with little or no improvement over time. Payment data in Spain was particularly difficult to extract. Thus, in no country did self-regulation generate comprehensive individualized data allowing for building an accurate picture of financial relationships between the industry and healthcare professionals. We conclude that the cultures and policies of countries and companies create structural problems of data inaccessibility and incompleteness within the self-regulatory framework. Therefore, this study supports calls for a Europe-wide “Sunshine Act” to achieve real transparency of drug company payments.<br/>}},
author = {{Mulinari, Shai and Martinon, Luc and Jachiet, Pierre-Alain and Ozieranski, Piotr}},
issn = {{1872-6054}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{07}},
number = {{7}},
pages = {{915--922}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Health Policy}},
title = {{Pharmaceutical industry self-regulation and non-transparency : country and company level analysis of payments to healthcare professionals in seven European countries}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2021.04.015}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.healthpol.2021.04.015}},
volume = {{125}},
year = {{2021}},
}