Miami Herald: RxP finds drug reps doing poor job of complying with lobbying law

06/10/2009

The Pew Prescription Project has found that drug and medical device reps are doing a poor job of complying with a regulation in Miami-Dade County that requires them to register as lobbyists in order to meet with doctors, according to the Miami Herald.

''Very few reps have registered; many major companies are missing; the few that registered filed little or nothing in the way of expenses -- even though you've got to know they were bringing lunch,'' Allan Coukell, director of the Pew Prescription Project, told the Herald.

Only 57 reps filed the mandatory reports with the county in 2007, according to the Herald, though major companies including Merck, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline were absent from the list. Many of those 57 reported $0 in expenses.

One who did report expenses was a medical device sales rep for Stryker Medical, Paul Montone, who reported spending nearly $60,000, including $38,960 allocated for entertainment. When reached by the Herald for comment, he said that Stryker had already contacted him.

"They told me not to speak to anybody," Montone said.

Estimates indicate the pharmaceutical and medical device industry spends between $20 and $57 billion a year on marketing.