Nearly 60 Israeli physicians were flown to a conference in Spain last week, at the expense of pharmaceutical company Pfizer, receiving rare Health Ministry approval for the junket.
The trip has provoked an uproar in Israel’s medical community, raising questions about the meaning and the consistency of ministry oversight of doctors’ professional trips abroad.
Pfizer paid for 58 cardiologists and internists to travel to and attend a conference on its blood-thinning drug Eliquis. The ministry issued an “exceptional permit” for the trip, despite recently announcing that it would bar physicians from accepting foreign travel paid by a single company.
