Rogers / 4 Senator Kolach

S.W._____

A BILL
To ban doctors from accepting any financial incentives from pharmaceutical representatives.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the Ethical Medication Prescription Act of 2017.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
1) Representatives provide samples only of the most promoted, usually most expensive, drugs, and patients
given a sample for part of a course of treatment almost always receive a prescription for the same drug.
2) There is a direct relationship between the frequency of contact with representatives and the likelihood
that physicians will behave in ways favorable to the pharmaceutical industry.
3) 98% of the advertising revenue of medical journals is paid for by the pharmaceutical industry.
4) Drug reps increase drug sales by influencing physicians, and they do so with finely tittered doses of
friendship.
5) The top 12 drug manufacturing companies held a median revenue of only $17.5 billion but a median
profit of assets level of 10.6%
6) Upwards of up to 440,000 have died yearly from preventable mistakes at hospitals
7) Small payments (e.g., under $1000 for the year) are associated with about twenty additional
prescriptions. This increases to almost sixty when the transfer exceeds $1000.
8) There is no set educational requirement to be a pharmaceutical sales representative (PSR), and no
medical education is required.
9) In 2012 doctors received more than $90m in research grants, nearly $13m for speaking engagements,
and another $4m for consulting, the reporters found.
10) AstraZeneca paid $520 million in fines to settle charges in 2010 by the federal government that it
illegally marketed the antipsychotic drug Seroquel to children and elderly patients for uses not approved by
the Food and Drug Administration.
11) In only seven drug companies, over 17,000 doctors, many of whom are paid substantial sums of money,
act as speakers for drug companies.
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A) The Ethical Medication Prescription Act of 2017 shall make it illegal for pharmaceutical representatives
to give any financial incentives to doctors or any person working in the medical industry. Financial
incentive includes but is not limited to vacations, food, gift cards, bribes or office supplies. Other
incentives are also disallowed including allowing participation in paid presentations. Pharmaceutical
companies will have to pay the government three times the amount of financial incentive the
representatives administered to the doctors and/or hospital staff. If pharmaceutical representatives wish to
provide doctors with information regarding a new drug, they cannot have any outside incentives that may
sway the doctors in their favor.
B)The U.S Department of Health and Human Services shall ensure the law created by the Ethical
Medication Prescription Act of 2017 by ensuring Pharmaceutical companies pay the necessary amount they
owe to the government.
C) The fee of three times the amount of financial incentive given to the doctors shall double if not paid six
months after the financial assistance/incentive were given. The Ethical Medication Prescription Act of 2017
shall be enacted by March 1, 2017

Press Release
Pharmaceutical sales representatives have direct access to medical professionals and doctors. This
relatively recent development in the relationship between big pharma and the health sector has had a clear
impact on the quality and quantity of prescription drug habits and health care to the point where it has become
harmful to the American consumer. Through perks, retreats, meals, and even direct bribes, sales representatives
are able to influence the prescribing habits of doctors in favor of whatever corporation they have thrown away
their ethics for. Pharmaceutical representatives giving financial aid to doctors and medical professionals causes
them to over prescribe, choose certain medications that were created for another reason, and prescribe more
expensive, brand name drugs.
Over 100,000 people have died yearly from doctors over prescribing medication. Thats one person every
five minutes. Doctors who receive payments from the medical industry do indeed prescribe drugs differently on
average than their colleagues who don't. In 2010 alone, Americans spent more than $16 billion on antipsychotics,
$11 billion on antidepressants and $7 billion for drugs to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Four out of
five times, the prescriptions for antidepressants, antipsychotics, and other psychiatric drugs are written by doctors
with little to no psychiatric background. But, Pharmaceutical representatives push these drugs the most causing
them to be the second most commonly prescribed drug in the United States. A majority of these prescriptions are
unnecessary and only prescribed because pharmaceutical representatives give doctors financial aid. In 2004,
pharmaceutical companies spent an average of $10,000 per practicing American physician on free meals, free
continuing medical education training, free trips to conferences, and payments for various services. Not only do
Doctors over prescribe certain medications, they sometimes are not giving completely accurate information and
prescribe the wrong medication for a certain diagnosis.
Some pharmaceutical companies trick doctors into selling medication that was created for another reason
in an attempt to boost sales. One such example would be: Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca will pay $520
million in fines to settle charges by the federal government that it illegally marketed the antipsychotic drug
Seroquel to children and elderly patients for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
AstraZeneca has had multiple scandals involving false marketing of drugs. Although the company may be facing
financial charges now, the amount of people that have been used as guinea pigs and given incorrect medication,
which could cause a variety of problems, cannot be helped. When drug sales reps come around, they provide
studies, but often studies that present their product in the most favorable view. Doctors do not have time to
double checks the facts that they are given and often take the representatives word for it. What that ends up
causing is that representatives can avoid certain side effects and can embellish the actual benefits of the
medication. On top of exaggerating the benefits of medication, pharmaceutical companies can pitch more
expensive drugs to doctors and medical professionals.
Medication has slowly become more expensive for consumers because pharmaceutical representatives
pitch brand name drugs which essentially means the most expensive drugs available. Continually rising drug
costs are not in the interests of our patient population as a whole, and the most expensive or most heavily
marketed drug may not be the best prescription for any given patient. Taxpayers could save over three-hundred
million dollars if doctors prescribed regular medication instead of brand name medication pushed by
pharmaceutical representatives.
Through, retreats, meals, conventions, direct bribes,office supplies and other forms of financial
incentives, pharmaceutical representatives become some of the closest people to doctors. This friendship is
completely strategic and causes a huge impact on the way doctors prescribe medication. If Pharmaceutical
representatives were no longer allowed to give any financial incentive to doctors, they would only be able to
share knowledge which would be a huge step in the right direction. This bill should be passed to allow patients to
have better faith in their doctors because they are truly getting the best medication for themselves.