Posted by Ritch on July 22, 2002, at 10:30:07
In reply to Drug companies track doctors' prescribing » Ritch, posted by jane d on July 21, 2002, at 12:11:00
> >Well, the weird part is that the pharmaceutical company that makes the cancer drug *knew* how many prescriptions were being written for the med and also by *which doctors*. Anyhow, the drug manufacturer is facing some kind of possible trouble because they had the information (doctor's scripts) which would have shown the pharmacist wasn't ordering enough of the drug to match up with the quantity of the drug being *dispensed* at the pharmacy. Weird, huh? Well, what gets me to wondering is.. if the drug co.'s *know* what drugs your pdoc is writing for, who's to say they couldn't engage in kicking back money to the pdoc for the scripts? I really didn't think the drug co's had access to that information, but evidently they do.
>
> Mitch,
> They've got that information. I was shocked when I first heard that because it really does make direct payoffs practical since the companies can monitor that they get what they pay for. Even if they just use it to up the psychological pressure "hey buddy, why did you only prescribe my drug 2 x, I thought you agreed with me that it was a good idea" complete with sad looks it's a scary idea. I don't know exactly how they get the information. I assume that either the drug store chains or the insurance drug management companies sell it to them since both now have that information on their computers. Computer technology has a lot to answer for. We probably need to make this information confidential as well.> Or I suppose we could insist that their prescribing records be released for all of us to see. A web site where you could sort their prescriptions by maker, cost, etc. and judge for yourself whether they were unduly influenced.
>
> Jane
Wow, thanks for responding! I wonder if the drug mfg.'s are privy to the information because of some regulation loop-hole? I could see where the information could be useful in an investigation. If they couldn't track it-they wouldn't have the information available for the DEA or FBI, i.e. However, the mfg's *could* abuse that knowledge. When I was first prescribed Neurontin, my pdoc (a different one), told me that "I like Neurontin because I have had success with it and they (Parke-Davis) aren't pushing it like other companies are pushing their products". Well... in light of the recent scandal surrounding how Neurontin was being marketed back in 1999, 2000, etc., it looks like they *were* pushing it very, very agressively. That is very suspicious.Your idea about the website is interesting, but I wonder if there would be privacy issues. Also, I might add that many of the "pushed" off-label meds *do* have some utility. Unfortunately, some people who *are* benefiting from off-label polypharmacy will probably get hurt by more public exposure about these scandals. Everyone *is* scandal conscious nowadays.
Mitch
poster:Ritch
thread:112998
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020718/msgs/113243.html