Promoting pharmaceuticals is a big-money business, and reporters at ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning independent newsroom devoted to investigative journalism in the public interest, have been tracking the cash flow.
This week, ProPublica’s Charles Ornstein, Tracy Weber and Dan Nguyen reported that eight drug companies spent more than $220 million on promotional speakers for their products last year, and millions more on meals for physicians and other health care professionals.
The report is the latest in their series Dollars for Docs, which tracks industry payments to physicians and other health professionals.
As part of it, ProPublica has a database that tracks drug company payments to doctors; it currently includes $761.3 million in payments from 12 companies. For a list of payments to Connecticut professionals, click here.