For lectures and travel So much money doctors get from pharmaceutical companies

Doctors receive millions from the pharmaceutical industry
Pharmaceutical companies seem to pay physicians generous amounts for lectures, hotel stays or observational studies. As reported by the "Corrective" search center, 575 million euros went to more than 71,000 doctors and medical institutions in Germany last year. Now some of the payees can be researched by name in an internet database.

54 corporations open payments
This has never happened before: at the end of June, 54 pharmaceutical companies revealed for the first time how much money they paid to doctors in Germany. More than 71,000 physicians, specialists and medical facilities received 575 million euros last year, according to the "Correctiv" portal. Almost a third of these physicians have given their consent that the payments received may be made public. Now journalists from "Correctiv" and "Spiegel Online" have published a database for the first time after a joint evaluation of the data, which lists 20,489 physicians who received donations from pharmaceutical companies in 2015. Every internet user can search for specific physicians by name, city and postal code, according to the message.

Doctors apparently get huge amounts of money from pharmaceutical companies. (Image: Cherries / fotolia.com)

Individuals receive up to 200,000 euros for training and lectures
In the first place of the name known payee was according to the information last year, a doctor from Essen, who got more than 200,000 euros for lectures, training, consulting fees and expenses. On the other squares others include a Bonn doctor with 148,000 euros and a Bochum diabetologist with 128,000 euros. The largest sum (12.2 million) was found to be beyond all medics away from the pharmaceutical company "Novartis".

Overall, according to the research center last year, 119 million euros flowed from pharmaceutical companies for lecture fees, training and travel expenses to physicians - just by these grants each of the physicians received an average of 1646 euros, the statement said. In addition, € 366 million would be paid for observational and other medical studies, and € 90 million would go to medical facilities, e.g. for sponsoring, foundations and donations.

Doctors consider themselves incorruptible
Two thirds of the physicians did not agree to the disclosure of their names - which, according to the Mainz physician and psychotherapist Klaus Lieb is regrettable: "Transparency looks different," according to the Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Mainz according to the research center. Lieb is one of the experts who deals with the question of the influence of payments by pharmaceutical companies in Germany - a topic that experts have been arguing about for years. Most doctors assume that they are not bribery - even if they receive benefits from industry, "Correctiv" continues. "We doctors have a blind spot regarding conflicts of interest. We let ourselves be invited by the pharmaceutical industry and still believe that we are independent, "says Klaus Lieb.

Close contact with industry leads to more prescriptions
Lieb was able to show through a study published in the journal "Plos One" that physicians who often visit pharmaceutical representatives, prescribe more drugs. "In addition, doctors who go to pharmacy-sponsored training, on average prescribe higher-priced drugs," explains the expert. Doctors who are in close contact with the pharmaceutical industry would emphasize the benefits of medicines and rather downplay risks: "For all these findings, there is now a very good database," said Lieb, according to the research center. (No)