One of Australia’s biggest drug companies GlaxoSmithKline will reveal next month how much money it pays to doctors health groups and research institutes in grants and fees.
GlaxoSmithKline will initially limit the move to declaring how much money the firm pays to Australian health professionals overall in each of three categories: consultancies sponsorships and grants.
But it is understood full individual identification of payments remains GSK’s long-term goal. This is now required in the US under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act.
GSK Australia general manager Deborah Waterhouse said the latest move was “a global decision” by the company and GSK was “very committed to enhancing the transparency of how we manage our business”.
“This is the first step on what’s likely to be a journey in coming months and years” she said.
Ray Moynihan a journalist author and lecturer who has investigated behind-the-scenes drug company influences for more than a decade said Ms Waterhouse’s “stated willingness . . . to make the individual doctor-level data available is extremely significant”.
“It’s only a matter of time before the public will be able to do an internet search on their health professionals to see how many dinners they have recently attended or what sort of consultants’ fees they obtained.”