Senator Grassley (IA) reports on Pharma payments to doctors

Floor Statement of U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Pharma Payments to Doctors
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Mr. President, for the last few years, I have been looking at how drug companies may improperly influence medical care.
It's no secret that drug and device companies have substantial financial relationships with physicians.
In addition to multimillion dollar royalty payments and lucrative consulting contracts, I have found that drug and device companies often provide perks to doctors, such as expensive trips, lavish speaking fees, and other benefits.
These relationships can motivate doctors to modify their treatment practices and those practices may not be in the best interest of patients.
Because these financial relationships are so common, Senator Kohl and I introduced the Physician Payments Sunshine Act last year. Now this bill is not aimed at stopping money from flowing to doctors, but it will throw a little sunshine on the issue and hopefully curb bad
behavior.
Pdf here