$12.1 billion.

That’s how much Big Pharma lavished on America’s doctors from 2013 to 2022, according to a new study, for things like travel, meals, drinks, honoraria, consulting, and outright gifts.

• About 826,000 physicians received such payouts from drug or device makers over that ten-year span.

• Some orthopedic surgeons raked in as much as $4.8 million!

• But even something as seemingly innocent as a luncheon sponsored by Big Pharma has been shown to influence the decisions doctors make.

• Because there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

• Big Pharma knows exactly what it’s getting for investing well over a billion dollars a year — which it can easily afford due to its relentless fleecing of the American people — to influence our nation’s doctors.

Multiple studies demonstrate that payments from pharmaceutical companies and device manufacturers are linked to increases in prescriptions for specific medications and the use of particular devices.

That, in turn, can lead to inflated costs for patients, insurers, and Medicare.

There is no reason that Big Pharma lavishing money on doctors should be legal.

Congress can and must change the law so that the American people know we’re getting the medicines and devices we need rather than whatever Big Pharma happens to be influencing doctors to prescribe.

Tell Congress:

The American people deserve to know that we’re getting the drugs and medical devices we need, uninfluenced by payments to doctors from Big Pharma. Pass legislation to ban pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers from buying influence with doctors.

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- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen
 
 
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