Following in the footsteps of companies such as Merck and Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline recently published a list of fees paid between April 1 and June 30, 2009, to US healthcare professionals for speaking and consulting services. According to the company, they plan to update the list quarterly. During this period, the company reported paying $14.6 million to approximately 3,700 US doctors and other healthcare professionals for speaking or consulting services. The average amount spent per healthcare professional in the report was $3,909.
While GSK’s efforts to become more transparent should be applauded, it is likely that media and journalists may soon begin to attack the recipeints of such payments and begin to call them ‘conflicts.’