On Monday, January 25, 2010, at 1:00 pm, the Minnesota House and Senate will be holding a Joint Interim Hearing with the Commerce & Labor/Business, Industry & Jobs Committees. The hearing will be chaired Rep. Joe Atkins, Sen. Jim Metzen. The agenda of the committee is an information hearing, in which no official action will be taken. The committee will discuss three pieces of legislation proposed by State Representive Liebling:
– HF491 (Liebling) Prescription information prohibited for marketing purposes, and administrative penalties imposed;
– HF1640 (Liebling) Prescription drug academic detailing program established, and money appropriated; and
– HF1641 (Liebling) Gifts from drug or medical device manufacturers or distributors to physicians and formulary committee members banned.
Interestingly, Rep. Liebling is married to a consulting physician with the Mayo Clinic, where physicians are moving to the extreme of “avoiding conflict” at all costs.
It has been noted that many Mayo physicians publicly talk about “conflict” but, privately Mayo is very involved in soliciting commercial support for their clinical research and education done at its three sites.
In addition to discussing these pieces of legislation, the committee will also hear testimony from the following anti industry activists:
– Peter Wyckoff, M. Div.- Minnesota Prescription Coalition Staff
– Dr. Stephen Schondelmeyer, Pharm. D, Ph.D.
– Allan Coukell, BSc (Pharmacy), Pew Prescription Project, Director
– Rep. Cindy Rosenwald, New Hampshire Legislature
– Tomas M. Snedden, Director of PACE Program, Pennsylvania
– Dr. Chris McCoy, MD, National Physicians Alliance, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
– Kim Witczak – Consumer
While the proposed legislation seeks to enforce stricter limitations on physicians regarding their collaboration with industry, it is important that legislators consider the potential impact these bill if enacted will create.
If physicians are prohibited from working together and innovating medicine and technology because of what appears to some as a ‘conflict,’ science and education will be sacrificed, which will only end up hurting patients.
In the end, while it is important to ensure that patients and the public can trust their relationships with physicians, the experience doctor’s gain and the results patients see from working with industry far outweigh any perceived risk of conflict.
If you live in Minnesota, write the chairman Rep. Joe Atkins, Sen. Jim Metzen that you don’t think further restrictions are in order. If you think the people want more restrictions on physicians then ask the voters in Massachusetts and Minnesota.