Pfizer Inc. said it paid $35 million to some 4,500 doctors and researchers from July through December 2009 for a variety of services, including speaking fees, expert advice, and work on clinical trials of its medicines.
The world's largest drugmaker last year agreed to pay a record $2.3 billion fine and plead guilty to a criminal charge related to improper promotions of 13 of its medicines, but said the new disclosures were already in the works before that widely publicized settlement.
Moreover, Pfizer said the disclosures are in line with, and exceed, payment reporting provisions included in recently passed U.S. healthcare reform legislation.
About $15.3 million, or some 44 percent of Pfizer's reported payments over the last six months of 2009, went to about 250 research organizations for clinical trials that began after July 1, or for payments made between July 1 and December 31 for clinical studies.
Some 1,500 healthcare professionals were paid an average $5,000 each for expert advice, while 2,800 doctors were paid an average of $3,400 in speaking fees to lecture peers about Pfizer's drugs, the company said. The most highly compensated doctor received about $150,000 during the period, Pfizer said.
The disclosures involve those who received payments, meals, or non-monetary educational items worth $25 or more, according to Pfizer.
All types of payments mentioned in its report are legitimate means of fostering development of drugs and getting "real world" information from the medical community about the products, said Pfizer spokeswomen Kristen Neese.
Pfizer in September was slapped with the huge fine by the U.S. government after being deemed a repeat offender in pitching its now-withdrawn Bextra arthritis drug and another dozen medicines to patients and doctors for unapproved uses.
Pfizer pleaded guilty in 2004 to an earlier criminal charge of improper sales tactics and its practices have been under U.S. supervision since then.
Speaking engagements, in which doctors are paid by drugmakers to discuss their medicines with groups of other physicians, have been among the most controversial industry marketing practices.
By law, companies are forbidden to promote their drugs for uses not cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But some companies allegedly have greatly boosted prescriptions for their drugs by allowing or encouraging paid speakers to discuss such "off-label" use of their products.
Pfizer's chief medical officer, Freda Lewis-Hall, on Wednesday defended company-paid speakers, saying they allowed practicing physicians to convey their knowledge to other doctors and to answer their questions.
"We work very hard to make sure our speakers have the full range of data and information we have, and that they share it appropriately," Lewis-Hall said.
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