Industry Payments Common Among Neurologists Prescribing MS Drugs
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Sept. 5, 2025 -- Nearly 80 percent of neurologists prescribing multiple sclerosis (MS) drugs receive payments from industry, according to a study published online Aug. 26 in BMJ Open.
Ahmed Sayed, M.D., from Houston Methodist Debakey Heart & Vascular Center, and colleagues conducted a retrospective observational study using data on 7,401 neurologists prescribing MS drugs from 2015 to 2019 in the Medicare Part D database linked to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Open Payments database.
The researchers found that 78.5 percent of the neurologists received payments totaling $163.6 million between 2015 and 2019. Although the median amount per physician was $779, just over 95 percent of total payments accrued to the top 10 percent of payment recipients. There was an association for higher prescription volumes with a higher likelihood of receiving any payment type, especially for consulting services, nonconsulting services, and travel/lodging. The amount received was positively associated with prescription volume among payment recipients. An association was seen for receipt of payments versus no payment with an increased likelihood of prescribing the company's drugs (odds ratio, 1.13); the largest association was seen for nonconsulting services, such as being a speaker at an event (odds ratio, 1.53). The likelihood of prescribing was increased in association with larger payments, longer durations of payments, and more recent payments.
"These findings suggest industry selectively targets higher-volume prescribers with large payments, which were associated with prescribing, and raise concerns about excess pharmaceutical promotion efforts and their implications for physician prescribing for patients," the authors write.
One author was an expert witness in a trial against Biogen that was settled in 2022.
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted September 2025
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