Inside New Zealand's first disclosure of drug company payments to health professionals
For seven years, Medicines New Zealand has promised that drug companies will disclose their gifts and payments to health professionals. Now they finally have. Nikki Macdonald analyses the first data dump, and asks what it means, and what’s missing.
At last we have a number: $456,418.95.
It’s not a complete number. And it’s probably not a very representative number. But it's a number and that’s progress.
Since drug companies were slapped with billion-dollar fines for illegal marketing in the United States, and a 2010 Sunshine Act there aimed to shine a light on pharma influence, countries worldwide have set up schemes to disclose drug company freebies and payments to health professionals.
Link to article: Under the influence? Inside New Zealand's first disclosure of drug company payments to health professionals | Stuff.co.nz
