The University of Colorado Denver is rewriting policies meant to prevent conflicts of interest between drug companies and faculty members and doctors working at its teaching hospitals.
The move comes in response to reports last month detailing how U.C. professors and doctors were pulling down big money on speaking tours paid for by major drug companies such as Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer. U.C.
Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs Richard Krugman said the speeches amounted to marketing for the companies. Doctors, some of whom were paid in the six-figure range, reportedly underwent training provided by the drug companies, spoke on topics chosen by the companies and worked off company power-point slides in their presentations.
U.C. Denver launched an internal review at the medical school based on material compiled and posted online by ProPublica and found that 46 faculty members had been working the drug-company talk circuit.
At a faculty senate meeting last week Krugman made the case for reworking the present rules because, he said, they were clearly inadequate to protect the institution’s reputation.
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