Doctors in the state may soon find it easier to learn about the latest scientific findings on drugs they prescribe.
Lawmakers are considering a bill that would create an educational service to supplement what doctors get from the pharmaceutical industry.
And the House is expected to vote on it Wednesday.
NHPR’s Dianne Finch has more.
The bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to create a program to help doctors get unbiased information about drugs.
Representative Cindy Rosenwald is the primary sponsor of the bill.
She says that doctors are becoming increasingly skeptical about information they’re getting from drug companies.
Rosenwald: “So doctors have decided not to see drug reps at all. Other physicians still see drug reps and try to filter the information they get from them but it’s very difficult.”
She adds that if the bill becomes law, doctors would get information from US and international sources – and it would be vetted by researchers unassociated with drug companies.
Rosenwald: “Physicians are increasingly aware that basically the voice of academic research is funded by the pharmaceutical industry. The US government has pretty much gotten out of the field of funding scientific research. And so if there’s only one voice it’s hard to really trust it.”
The New Hampshire Medical Association supports the legislation.
And similar programs already exist in other states, including Vermont, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.
Patricia Nnadi is a psychiatrist at the Charleston Mental Health Center in South Carolina.
Trainers visited her practice recently and brought her the latest findings on treatments for schizophrenia.
She appreciated having someone come to her with information that would have been overwhelming to condense herself.
Nnadi: “The face to face really is much more personal than reading it in a journal but the other thing too is its more succinct to the point focuses on one condition you don’t have to dig through pages or dig thru several different journals for the specific information you’re looking for so it’s a good way of condensing a lot of information on one page.”
She sees the program as supplemental to her own research.
And she says that drug company reps will continue to be welcome.
They provide discounts drugs – and most of her patients are indigent.
Nnadi: “I think I have been exposed enough to pharmaceutical reps to know how to evaluate their information. So I’d hear the information but I still read the studies that looked in a broader way at the individual agents and I also had my clinical experience.”
The drug manufacturers aren’t exactly pleased with these types of programs.
Leslie wood is the director of state policy at PHrMA, the largest drug industry association.
Wood says the concern is that the programs focus too much on the cost of drugs – rather than on quality of care.
And, she says, drug companies already provide solid scientific information to doctors.
Wood: “We believe our companies who research and develop drugs are the best people to provide information on our drugs. We spend more than a decade developing these medicines…before going thru FDA approval process.”
But advocates of these academic programs say they don’t want to kick drug companies out of doctors’ offices.
And they’re not attempting to steer doctors toward cheaper drugs.
Harvard Medical School professor Frank May has been on the forefront of the movement internationally.
His group consults to states and universities interested in developing such programs.
May has been meeting with lawmakers and academia in New Hampshire to help them understand the approach.
May: “We’re not trying to either save costs or simply perhaps replace the pharmaceutical industry’s patented product with a generic. It’s all about actually helping doctors to make good decisions which will suit the individual patient together with the patient.”
The concept isn’t new.
Governments in Canada, the UK, Australia, and the Netherlands pay for such programs.
In New Hampshire, the bill proposes that the HHS commissioner seek grants to get the program started.
Rosenwald’s bill passed House committee with a solid majority and next heads for the House floor.
For NHPR News, I’m Dianne Finch
