South Florida doctors paid thousands by Eli Lilly

[seafan]

Source: Miami Herald

While policymakers question whether drug makers are hurting healthcare reform by paying doctors fees, Eli Lilly revealed that it paid 10 South Florida providers more than $10,000 each during the first quarter.
In the first revelation about how much drug makers are paying doctors, Eli Lilly has created an online registry detailing payments to 3,400 healthcare providers -- including more than two dozen in South Florida in the first three months of this year.

Top on the South Florida list -- and No. 3 in the nation -- was internist Manuel Suarez-Barcelo, who told The Miami Herald that he earned $65,000 by traveling through 11 states, making 41 presentations, mostly to nursing home staff, about the advantages of the Lilly drug Forteo, used to treat osteoporosis.
Seven others in South Florida pulled in more than $10,000 each, including Broward obstetrician-gynecologist Jay S. Cohen, who received $38,000.

The payments are not illegal, but Washington policymakers question whether they raise the potential for conflicts of interest.
As Congress looks for ways to reduce healthcare costs to help fund the nation's 50 million uninsured, several leading lawmakers have expressed concerns that drug makers lavish payments on doctors to influence them to prescribe the latest, and often most expensive, drugs.

``Large corporations do not typically spend these sums unless they think they will get something out of it,'' said Sen. Herb Kohl, a Democrat from Wisconsin, in a Senate hearing last month. Kohl and Sen. Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, are pushing for federal legislation to require all drug makers to reveal what they pay doctors(.)

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Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/1176936.html

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Yeah, Eli Lilly's payments to these doctors to fly around the country to lecture on their pharmaceuticals *absolutely would NOT influence* the drug choices these doctors make for their patients.


It's all just above-board and honest now, so just move along. Nothing to see here.


With Dick Armey (FreedomWorks) and Tim Phillips (Americans for Prosperity) and the multitude of other front groups taking health insurance company money to train brownshirts to storm town hall meetings to oppose health care reform discussions, and drug companies paying off doctors to prescribe their drugs, we shouldn't wonder why health care is such a filthy racket.

[47of74]

1. I think it's time for RICO to be used against some of these companies

Because they are corrupt organizations.

[Haole Girl]

2. This is not only happening in South Florida

Many doctors have become nothing more than glorified pill-pushers. Bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical companies. :grr:

[DannyHaszard]

9. Z

"FIVE at FIVE"

The Zyprexa antipsychotic drug,whose side effects can include weight gain and diabetes, was sold for "children in foster care, people who have trouble sleeping, elderly in nursing homes." Five at Five was the Zyprexa sales rep slogan, meaning 5mg dispensed at 5pm would keep patients quiet.
Google * Eli Lilly Zyprexa * and read the links,this is for a product that we put in our children's bodies.This drug company has a reputation a little better than a mafia drug lord.

BTW-I took Zyprexa it gave me diabetes and was as addictive as tobacco.How so?
Because withdrawal is accompanied by severe insomnia for 6 weeks.It was harder to quit Zyprexa than cigarettes.
Awful stuff and $10 a pill
-------
Daniel Haszard http://www.zyprexa-victims.com

Eli Lilly is reaping what they have sown!
The Lilly Zyprexa saga will go on and on and on.....

[Larissa238]

3. I have been a victim of this because of my bipolar

The first mood stabilizer they put me on was Tegretol, a brand name when the standard treatment for decades has been lithium (which is not patented). I did bad on Tegretol but for years they refused to switch me to lithium. I finally got on it and did well for a number of years (and then got some side effects that made me stop taking it). I forget what anti-depressant they first put me on, but I know it was a brand name... I went through all the brand names until I got to my current doctor who put me on Prozac (generic) and I've been doing great on that. I could have been spared years of suicidal thoughts and depression had they just put me on the standards instead of the brand names. I'm on a brand name drug now for my mood stabilizer but it works for me so I'm keeping it.

I just think of all the time I lost on brand name drugs when something as standard as Prozac worked wonders for me.

[TZ]

12. Uh Prozac is a big brand name drug

I think its manufactured by either Merck or GlaxoSmithKline.
Your post is pretty hyporcritical.

[Sgent]

14. Not really

although "Proazac" is still made, drugs are generally considered to no longer be "brand name" when generics are available, which they have been for Prozac for a long time.

[Skittles]

4. big Pharma whores

that's what they are

[boomerbust]

5. I had a doctor tell me

If I quit taking the medication he prescribed, which did not work, to not see him any more. Pharma shills all over this country.

[bluesmail]

6. First do no harm...HA! eom for now

[bmbmd]

7. Forteo is an excellent product

and I prescribe it occasionally. I am not paid to do so, nor am I a paid speaker for Lilly. I don't eat drug company food, I don't go to their meetings, and I don't use their pens and tablets. Most of my partners feel the same. Forteo is almost certainly losing market share to ReClast, and may well someday be passe.

[eagertolearn]

8. This is definetely a conflict of interest. This is how a lot of doctors

get educated in medical school about the different drugs. The drug companies come into the medical schools and preach their products.

[Vidar]

10. My doctor keeps me supplied with samples & meds from Walmart's $4.00 list

He's the main reason I'm still alive & I'm very grateful.

[BlueIris]

11. Ugly. Not shocking, but ugly. nt

[TZ]

13. yeah

all doctors are corporate whores..:sarcasm:.
You know, I'm chronically ill and I've never dealt with a doctor who proscribed me something because he was "paid" to do it. I've been proscribed medicine because the doctors thought they would work for me...
But hey, its okay because we know here in DU all medical personal are evil unethical shills! I should know I work in the field!
Yay for prejudice! Up with bigotry!
God damn people, there are bad eggs in every field but somehow we never hear about the good and caring people in this field. Which of course means they don't exist...:sarcasm: