Minnesota lawmakers are in news for their proposed bills as efforts are being made to ensure that doctors are making the best decisions, based on non-biased information.

It has been highlighted that too many conflicts of interest exist between the pharmaceutical industry and Minnesota’s physicians, undermining health and contributing to the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs.

This week three pieces of legislation will be heard at a joint interim hearing of the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee and the House Business, Industry and Jobs Committees. Proposals include creation of an academic drug-vetting programme to take that responsibility away from a pharmaceutical sales representative.

National experts will testify about how these proposals have worked in other states:

• Legislation that will prohibit pharmaceutical companies from buying doctors’ prescribing records and using the information to target their marketing to individual doctors.
• Legislation that will ban gifts to providers from pharmaceutical manufacturers and improve transparency and reporting laws that more clearly define relationships between health care providers and pharmaceutical companies.
• Legislation to establish an “academic detailing” programme to give physicians non-biased information to make the best and most cost-effective decisions about prescriptions.

Impact

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) stated its vitally important that Minnesota state legislators concentrate their efforts on improving patients’ access to care, and to improving the quality of that care. None of the bills to be discussed addresses any of those critical issues, it added. What’s more, the proposed legislation could make it more difficult for pharmaceutical companies to identify physicians treating patients who might benefit from receiving information about an innovative medicine or new information about an existing treatment.

PhRMA highlighted that one proposed bill mischaracterises the beneficial relationships between companies and healthcare practitioners and could discourage physicians from providing their expertise to pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies. Worse, the proposal could limit those physicians’ participation in clinical trials, making it much more difficult to complete painstaking research that transforms promising ideas into life-saving therapies.

“The final proposal could expand academic detailing programmes that, elsewhere, exist solely to boost the number of generic drugs that physicians prescribe. That single-minded focus raises the question of the merit of such a programme in Minnesota, where generic dispensing rates already approach 80%,” stated PhRMA. “Taken as a whole, the package of legislative proposals could have a chilling effect on Minnesota’s life sciences at a time when state leaders aim to expand this vital sector.”

It is estimated that Minnesota’s biopharmaceutical sector supports more than 49,000 employees and pumped $8.2 billion into the state’s economy in 2006. In 2008, more than 2,200 clinical trials were conducted in Minnesota.

New coalition

Meanwhile, a broad-based group of organisations pledged to join together and work at the State Capitol to improve the way prescription drugs are prescribed and to bring down drug costs for individuals, government entities and providers.

“Frustration about the pharmaceutical industry’s marketing practices is at an all-time high,” said Pete Wyckoff of Community Catalyst, who directs the work of the coalition. “Minnesota’s consumers, doctors, health care providers and policymakers believe that there must be something done to curb the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on the health care system. No one should come between decisions made between doctors and patients – certainly not the pharmaceutical industry.”

The Coalition includes AARP, Allina, Consumer Worker Coalition (RWJ initiative), HealthPartners, Hennepin County Medical Center, Mature Voices Minnesota, Park Nicollet, National Physician Alliance-MN, Take Action Minnesota, Minnesota AFL-CIO, Minnesota Nurses Association, Labor/Management Healthcare Coalition of the Upper Midwest, StratisHealth and UCare Minnesota.

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2. Physicians Count On Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives For Information
3. Helping a pharmaceutical sales representative in receiving continuing education credits
4. The Plight Of A Female Pharmaceutical Sales Representative Highlighted In The US
5. Biovest Commits New Biotech Jobs To Minnesota