Slightly Different Than Santa's List

Eli Lilly and Merck announced that they will start reporting payments they make to outside physicians beginning in 2009. Eli Lilly will list either the doctors' names or other identifying material and a reason why a payment was made, such as for speaking or consulting, in an online database. Merck will be disclosing speaking fees paid to doctors. Blogger Michael White at Adaptive Complexity comments, "It's possible that this move by Lilly and Merck won't go far enough in reporting all of the money they pay physicians, or making clear who gets payments, but it seems like a step in the right direction." Also next year, the US Congress is slated to take up the Physician Payments Sunshine Act that would require a registry of payments made to physicians by drug manufacturers.