http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7339/693
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Ethics Regulation
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Some 3500 doctors in several German towns are currently being investigated for alleged undue financial advantages and corruption after aggressive marketing by a drugs company.
The district attorney's office in Munich, which is carrying out the investigation, said that suspicions were raised over excessive marketing activities by SmithKline Beecham, the company which merged in 2000 with GlaxoWellcome to form GlaxoSmithKline. From 1997 to 1999 SmithKline Beecham invited hospital doctors and their spouses to conferences in Germany and abroad.
An additional 5800 payments of up to 
25000 each (£15477;
$22051) were made, in some cases for travel costs, conferences,
studies, lectures, or expert consulting. In other cases, books,
personal computers, and donations were given. When SmithKline Beecham
held a conference on its new ACE inhibitor drug, doctors were invited
to visit the final of the football world championship or a formula
one race nearby.
However, 2220 of the initially suspected cases have been closed by the
district attorney's office because less than 500 was
paid.
After nationwide reporting of the scandal in the media, federal health minister Ulla Schmidt, like other politicians, was enraged and asked for a thorough investigation.
The German director of GlaxoSmithKline, Thomas Werner, did not deny that the former SmithKline Beecham was responsible for these excessive marketing activities. He protested, however, against premature judgments on doctors and employees of the company.
When GlaxoSmithKline was formed, new guidelines had been issued, said Dr Werner. He also pointed out that clinical studies were essential for the introduction of innovative therapies and that doctors have to be informed about new drugs. Doctors' integrity must not be put at risk without real reason, he said.
Lawyer Alexander Ehlers, who specialises in questions of health law, pointed out that only doctors employed in hospitals were involved. If they received money or any other reward without adequate work, the anti- corruption law had to be applied. Whereas a dinner invitation at a conference was acceptable, the doctor's spouse should not be invited, and luxurious entertainment was also unacceptable, he said. Funding of clinical research by firms was possible if the money was paid and administered in special accounts.
Jïrg Hoppe, the president of the Bundes rztekammer, the German Medical
Association, pointed out that again and again doctors were unfairly
publicly prosecuted and
as
in the so called "heart valve scandal"in
only a few cases did legal prosecution follow.
In the "heart valve scandal" thousands of doctors were said to have received
money for using very expensive types of heart valves. In the end,
34 doctors were sentenced, for various other reasons.
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Collections under
which this article appears:Other
Ethics Regulation
Governments
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