Pharma companies make it easier to track their spending on doctors
The names of doctors receiving drug company payments will be listed on a single website for the first time in the push to improve transparency over the links between pharma and the medical profession.
Since 2015, payments made to health professionals — including speaker and consultant fees, as well as the cost of airfares and accommodation — have been published every six months by 33 pharmaceutical companies who make up Medicines Australia.
However, until now, the payments have been listed separately on the websites of each company, making it difficult to track the overall payments made to individual doctors and other health professionals.
Medicines Australia says it has now developed its centralised database.