INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today Eli Lilly andCompany (NYSE: LLY) announced that it is set to become the firstpharmaceutical research company to disclose its payments to physicians in theUnited States.At a speech before the Economic Club of Indiana today, Lilly’s presidentand chief executive officer, John Lechleiter, Ph.D., outlined the company’splans to launch an online registry of physician payments in 2009. Lechleiterannounced the physician registry as a part of a broader outline on thecompany’s transformation efforts.
“With each of our industry firsts, from launching our clinical trialsregistry to the public reporting of educational grants, Lilly is striving tobe a leader in improving transparency across our industry,” said Lechleiter."As Lilly continues to look for more ways to be open and transparent about ourbusiness, we’ve learned that letting people see for themselves what we’redoing is the best way to build trust.”
Earlier this year, Lilly was the first pharmaceutical research company toendorse bipartisan federal legislation - known as the Physician PaymentsSunshine Act - that would establish a national registry of payments tophysicians by medical device, medical supply and pharmaceutical companies.The legislation, which was introduced by United States Senators CharlesGrassley (R-Iowa) and Herbert Kohl (D-Wisconsin) last September, has not beenpassed yet by Congress.
Lechleiter added, “Though we remain hopeful that the Sunshine Act will bepassed by Congress at some point, Lilly is taking action independently. Beingmore transparent by opening up our business to the public is an important stepto building trust and confidence.”
Under the Lilly registry plan, the public will have access to an Internetdatabase listing its payments to physicians. Lilly will launch this registryas early as the second half of 2009. When first launched, its contents willinclude 2009 payments to physicians who serve the company as speakers andadvisors. By 2011, Lilly plans to expand the reporting capabilities of theregistry to resemble the Sunshine Act legislation. The registry will beupdated annually to reflect the previous year’s payment information.
“Eli Lilly is leading the charge for transparency in the relationshipbetween pharmaceutical companies and doctors by fulfilling the obligations ofthe Physician Payments Sunshine Act before it has been enacted,” said SenatorKohl. “It takes a lot of courage to be the first. They have made aprincipled decision that I believe will benefit both their business and theconsumers of their products.”
“Lilly is proud of the important and longstanding relationships we havewith physicians,” said Lechleiter. “Many physicians perform valuable servicesfor the biopharmaceutical industry by advising us on the development of newmedicines and giving lectures to other medical professionals to educate themabout new treatment options. For these services, they are compensated atmarket rates. These services help to advance the science related to medicinesand are important to both current and future patients who rely onpharmaceuticals as an integral part of their therapy.”
“Our primary focus is the well-being of our patients and APA has adoptedstrict disclosure policies to ensure our patients are informed regardingrelationships between physicians and industry,” said James H. Scully Jr.,M.D., CEO and Medical Director of the American Psychiatric Association. “Weapplaud efforts by Lilly to ensure there is transparency in theirrelationships with physicians.”
Lilly’s plan to create a physicians payments registry is consistent withother voluntary actions it has taken recently to enhance transparency inhealth care, including its support of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. In2004, Lilly became the first company to voluntarily make public its clinicaltrials and its clinical trials data; that information can be found atwww.lillytrials.com. Last year Lilly added another first by publiclyreporting all of its educational grants and charitable contributions and, eachquarter, posting the data online at www.lillygrantoffice.com.
About Lilly
Lilly, a leading innovation-driven corporation, is developing a growingportfolio of first-in-class and best-in-class pharmaceutical products byapplying the latest research from its own worldwide laboratories and fromcollaborations with eminent scientific organizations. Headquartered inIndianapolis, Ind., Lilly provides answers - through medicines and information- for some of the world’s most urgent medical needs. Additional informationabout Lilly is available at www.lilly.com. C-LLY
SOURCE Eli Lilly and Company
