Irish doctors share €6.8m payments from pharma companies

Doctors and other healthcare professionals were paid €6.8 million by pharmaceutical companies in Ireland last year, according to a new report.

Companies gave a further €10.7 million to healthcare organisations and €9.7 million for research and development, the report published by the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA) shows.

The industry has described the initiative, which includes the publication of payments made by companies across Europe, as a new level of transparency in the relationship between the sector and the healthcare organisation and professionals.

As part of the initiative, the association changed its mandatory code of practice to require disclosure of “transfers of value”.

The payments made were for research and development funding, donations and grants to healthcare organisations, contributions to the cost of events, as well as fees and related expenses for services and consultancy.

Details of the payments made by IPHA members and some other companies are available in the report on transferofvalue.ie. Subsequent reports will be published on a yearly basis and made publicly available for three years.

“This new level of transparency is designed to assure the public that they can trust their HCPs to recommend treatment or administer appropriate care based solely on clinical evidence,” said IPHA chief executive Oliver O’Connor.