The financial ties between drug and device makers and some physicians remains pervasive, despite concerns such relationships may influence medical practice, according to a new analysis of payments made over a recent 10-year span.
From 2013 to 2022, pharmaceutical and device companies made more than 85 million payments totaling $12.1 billion to approximately 826,300 physicians. And 94% of those payments were associated with at least one marketed medical product. Among the products for which the most payments were made included blood thinners and a robotic surgical system.
The analysis also revealed that 57% of all physicians — there were more than 1.4 million whose names were found in the Open Payments database maintained by the U.S. government — received a payment during that time. And the median payment was $48 across 39 medical specialties, although payments varied widely between specialties and between physicians within the same specialty.