Tampa Bay doctors with disciplinary records speak for drug companies
By Kris Hundley and Connie Humburg, Times Staff Writers
In Print: Monday, March 1, 2010

http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/...panies/1076545



Drug companies pay doctors millions each year to promote products to their peers over meals at pricey restaurants.

The drugmakers have found that doctors are more likely to prescribe a new medication if they've heard about it from a colleague instead of a sales rep.

So who are some of the doctors telling other doctors what drugs to prescribe? Patients might want to know.

Drug companies say they choose "leading clinicians" for paid speaking engagements. Among these speakers, according to Florida public records:

• Two Tampa surgeons involved in a botched robotic procedure that killed a Plant High School teacher.

• A St. Petersburg doctor who was put on probation by a local hospital and received a warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after he broke several FDA rules while running a drug study.

• A surgeon in Jacksonville who mistakenly removed brain tissue during sinus surgery, leaving the patient paralyzed, blind and brain-damaged.

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Under pressure from the public, as well as government settlement agreements, last year several drug companies began publishing the names of doctors who pitch products to colleagues at informal lunches and dinners. Eli Lilly reported spending $22 million on 3,400 speaker-physicians during the first nine months of 2009. These doctors "serve as a credible voice in bringing information to their peers," according to the Lilly Web site.

Though the events are billed as casual conversations, the physicians are supposed to adhere strictly to a company-approved script, except during question-and-answer sessions.

While there are hundreds of Florida doctors with no disciplinary records speaking for drug companies, several who have been paid speakers for Lilly and GlaxoSmithKline have drawn sanctions from state regulators.

Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman is a physician and associate professor at Georgetown University who heads a group critical of the pharmaceutical industry's marketing tactics. She said while drug companies might overlook malpractice lawsuits when vetting potential speakers, they should take it more seriously when a doctor has been disciplined by a state medical board because such actions are so rare.

A report by Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C., watchdog group, found that in 2008, the nationwide rate of serious actions by states' boards was the lowest in nine years, at 2.92 per 1,000 doctors. Florida was among the lowest in the country, with just 2.35 actions per 1,000 physicians.

Lilly declined to comment on how it reviews speakers. A Glaxo spokeswoman said speakers must certify that they have not been excluded, debarred, suspended from practice or convicted of a criminal offense