Earlier this month, the U.K. government issued a proposal to gather information and opinions about payments that drug and device makers give to the medical community. The move came amid ongoing concern over financial ties between companies and health care professionals, an issue that has largely been left to trade groups to police. In an effort to take greater control, the government plans to create what resembles the OpenPayments database in the U.S., which emerged from scandals and probes into undue industry influence over physicians and researchers. The U.K. effort has been welcomed by industry critics, but one academic says there is reason for caution. Piotr Ozieranski, a reader at the University of Bath, who studies interactions between drug companies, the U.K. health service, and patient groups, says the proposal does not go far enough. We recently spoke with Ozieranski about the issue. This is an edited version of our conversation.
This effort is reminiscent of what happened in the U.S. a decade ago, when a law called the Sunshine Act led to the OpenPayments database. But why is the U.K. looking at this now and not sooner?
The story behind this began about two years ago or so. The government commissioned an independent review of safety and quality in the health care system in England. And it was carried out by a senior figure — Baronness Cumberlege. The findings described a few cases where failures occurred in delivering safe and high quality care. And one of the themes running through these cases was conflicts of interest. This could be financial interests between doctors and researchers and drug and device industries. This was a really big thing in the U.K.