Personal Injury Law

Doctors Get Paid by Depuy Company to Promote Drugs and Products

Tennessee residents as well as people all across the country have heard about the Depuy hip recalls. Many of us may have even had a loved one or friend with a defective Depuy hip implant. However, many people may not be aware that many drug companies hire doctors to promote and advertise their drugs and other products. If you or someone you love has recently suffered hip pain or needed a second surgery to replace a failing hip implant, then you should speak to a Tennessee Depuy hip recall and defective product lawyer right away. They will help see to it that you get the compensation you are entitled to for what you have suffered through.

Many drug companies including Johnson and Johnson, Lilly, Cephalon, Merck, Pfizer, and GlaxoSmithKline have paid more than $257.8 million to doctors since 2009. Doctors are hired to organize ?educational? seminars or meetings that will mention the benefits and risks of certain drugs and products. However, these physicians are actually using these meetings to advertise a certain drug or product for a certain company. According to research by ProPublica and National Public Radio it has been shown that physicians who are on a drug company?s payroll are not actually specialists. This leads to questions over their role as consultants for the company.

Several state medical boards have also penalized doctors who are receiving payments and many of them are now charged with misconduct. In the past, doctor and company relations were kept quiet but now, patients have access to a database which allows them to see if their physicians have received payment.

Full post as published by Tennessee Law Blog on January 25, 2011 (boomark / email).