Pfizer tops spending list for drug samples

Pfizer drug samples top spending list

Following an overhaul of the healthcare system passed by the Obama administration in March 2010, all drug companies are now required to divulge the amount they spend on drug samples as part of an initiative to overhaul what critics see as a culture of pharmaceutical firms enticing doctors with free goods, such as dinners and trips away, so that they will prescribe their drugs, reported Dow Jones. 

Samples are a key marketing technique for pharmaceutical companies and enable the industry to promote new drugs but these practices have been surrounded by controversy and now all details of sampling will have to be presented to Congress.  

Overall, the reported spending on drug samples by pharmaceutical companies exceeds $3 billion. However, very few companies have disclosed their spending figures yet.

According to the documents given to Congress, following Pfizer and Merck in third place was Eli Lilly & Co. which spent $67 million on 39 million drug samples and then Wyeth, which was acquired by Pfizer last year, gave away 52 million samples at a cost of around $64 million.

The companies who have presented their spending on drug samples valued their costs based on either market price or on their wholesale cost and all noted that these medicines were not to be re-sold. Some of the companies counted their samples by dose, whereas others counted them by unit. However, multiple samples can be included in one of these units.

Will enforced disclosure hinder patients?

A spokesman for Pfizer said that drug samples "enable patients and physicians to try a medicine and evaluate tolerance, assess effectiveness, and adjust dosage before committing to a full prescription regimen."

This statement was echoed by other pharmaceutical companies who explained that drug samples can help some patients by making medication instantly available to them, without having to wait for prescriptions to be filled.

Senate aides have said that mandatory disclosure of the distribution of drug samples could have negative consequences and may deter doctors from providing free samples to those who can't afford them. 

Many pharmaceutical companies have well-developed programs set up to assist access to free or discounted drugs for lower-income patients and drug samples are usually a separate program for companies. Pfizer, for instance, said that over the last five years the company has helped six million patients receive more than 48 million Pfizer prescriptions which is the equivalent of $5.7 billion worth of free medicines and savings.

It is still unclear how much the pharmaceutical industry actually spends on drug samples and perhaps always will be, as drug companies say that their data is proprietary.

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