NORTON SHORES – In a move to increase consumer protection in Michigan and hold drug companies accountable, State Representative Mary Valentine (D-Norton Shores) today introduced a plan that requires drug companies to fully disclose how they spend their marketing money and bans lavish gifts such as extravagant trips and meals to doctors.
"While consumers and seniors living on fixed incomes are pinching pennies to pay for their prescription drugs, the drug companies are spending billions of dollars on marketing their products," Valentine said. "The drug companies unfortunately put profits before people and secrecy ahead of safety. What is most important is the safety of our residents and protecting our consumers. By requiring drug companies to report what and how they spend their money, we can increase transparency and openness in the industry, which will only benefit Michigan's citizens."
The House Democratic plan would:
- Require companies to report all drug advertising and marketing expenditures, including gifts to doctors and other health care workers.
- Require companies to report research and development expenditures.
- Ban lavish drug company gifts to doctors and limit gifts to $100 worth a year.
- Establish a searchable Web site that details drug companies' marketing expenses and gifts to doctors, which would be maintained by the Department of Community Health.
Big drug companies spend more than $21 billion annually on marketing. ¹ Merck, maker of now-banned Vioxx, spent more than $160 million on an aggressive advertising campaign in 2000; as a result, sales of Vioxx quadrupled to $1.5 billion. ² Vioxx may have caused heart attacks or cardiac deaths in up to 139,000 Americans, based on Merck's own studies, before it was pulled from shelves in 2004.³
"We must demand more openness and transparency from drug companies," Valentine said. "We cannot let up on our fight to make drug companies more accountable. Increasing accountability will increase consumer protection, and could ultimately save lives in Michigan. This is the right thing to do to safeguard the health and well-being of our residents."
¹ Journal of the American Medical Association, Jan. 25, 2006.
² 2002 AARP report.
³ Testimony of David Graham, associate director for science and medicine in the FDA's Office of Drug Safety,
before the Senate Finance Committee, Nov. 18, 2004.