New tool for truth in drug-marketing
Area doctors may be among the first to learn new techniques for reducing the influence of drug marketers thanks to a $400,000 grant awarded to the director of the Meyers Primary Care Institute at UMass Medical School.
Jerry H. Gurwitz, the grant recipient and center’s director, says the money will be used for a project that will teach doctors to better assess drug efficacy and cost, develop strategies to deal with pharmaceutical reps and find best ways to deal with patients who ask for drugs that they’ve seen on television.Gurwitz’s long-term goal is to develop portable, web-based curricula that UMass and other medical schools across the country can use to teach doctors how to be better doctors, Gurwitz says.
Meyers, housed at UMass Medical School, is a joint venture between the school, the Fallon Clinic Foundation and Fallon Community Health Plan.
The grant money comes from a $20 million fund, created as part of a settlement between attorney generals from across the nation and the former drug-maker Warner-Lambert, now part of Pfizer. The lawsuit charged Warner-Lambert with "off-label" marketing of its epilepsy drug Neurontin - recommending it to doctors for treatments never approved by the FDA, such as migraines and Attention Deficit Disorder.
Gurwitz is one of four MA physicians to receive a grant. Bay State doctors received roughly 10 percent of the $10 million that has been distributed so far.
"It’s a reflection of the respect that Massachusetts health care organizations have throughout the country," says Jesse M. Caplan, chief of consumer protection and the antitrust division of Attorney General Tom Reilly’s office.
Kenneth J. St. Onge can be reached at kstonge@wbjournal.com
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