Vermont Passes Tougher Pharma Disclosure and Gift Ban

May 15th, 2009. By Evelyn Pringle

Update

The Vermont Senate and House have passed a sweeping new law to close loopholes in the state’s existing gift and payment disclosure law, and to ban many gifts, including food and free meals, by makers of prescription drugs, medical devices and biological products.

The House version of the bill also required disclosure of free samples but the Senate amended it out and directed the Attorney General’s office to complete a study on the issue and report back in December 2009.

A 2002 Vermont law required disclosure of many gifts and payments to prescribers but the new law closes a “trade secret” exemption, which resulted in most data being submitted in aggregate form without identifying the names of prescribers.

In the period of July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008, pharmaceutical companies spent approximately $2.9 million on marketing in Vermont, a state with a population of less than 609,000, through consulting and speaker fees, travel expenses, gifts, and other payments to or for physicians, hospitals, universities and others authorized to prescribe or dispense pharmaceutical products, the “Pharmaceutical Marketing Disclosures,” annual report by the state’s Attorney General shows.

Over 80% of the expenditures analyzed for the report were designated as “trade secrets,” making it illegal to release the specific information to the public, according to a press release by the Attorney General.

The new bill “mandates full disclosure of allowable gifts to physicians, health care organizations, non-profit groups and state-funded academic institutions, and insures a higher degree of transparency in the state’s health care system,” according to a May 11, 2009 press release by the National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices (NLARx).

“The bill allows consumers going to their physician to know whether their doctor is taking money from the pharmaceutical companies,” said President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin (D-Windham), sponsor of the bill, in the press release. “The bill allows for greater patient and consumer empowerment and in these difficult economic times, it is a good step toward addressing our rising health care costs.”

“Vermont now joins Minnesota and Massachusetts in tackling head-on the pervasive influence of payments and gifts on medical practititioners through a ban on many gifts,” said Sharon Treat, Executive Director of NLARx.

NLARX is a non-partisan, non-profit organization of state legislators from across the country working to lower prescription drug costs and improve access to affordable medicines.

Tags: disclosure law, gift ban, Vermont

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