Department of Economics, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA.
Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
Health Econ. 2021 Dec;30(12):3159-3185. doi: 10.1002/hec.4424. Epub 2021 Sep 25.
Physicians' relationships with the pharmaceutical industry have recently come under public scrutiny, particularly in the context of opioid drug prescribing. This study examines the effect of doctor-industry marketing interactions on subsequent prescribing patterns of opioids using linked Medicare Part D and Open Payments data for the years 2014-2017. Results indicate that both the number and the dollar-value of marketing visits increase physicians' patented opioid claims. Furthermore, direct-to-physician marketing of safer abuse-deterrent formulations of opioids is the primary driver of positive and persistent spillovers on the prescribing of less safe generic opioids - a result that we show appears to be driven by insurance coverage policies. These findings suggest that pharmaceutical marketing efforts may have unintended public health implications.
医生与制药行业的关系最近受到了公众的审查，特别是在阿片类药物处方方面。本研究使用 2014 年至 2017 年的医疗保险 Part D 和公开支付数据，考察了医生与行业营销互动对随后阿片类药物处方模式的影响。结果表明，营销访问的数量和金额都增加了医生专利阿片类药物的索赔。此外，直接向医生推销更安全的阿片类药物滥用阻止配方是导致更不安全的通用阿片类药物处方出现积极和持续溢出的主要驱动因素——我们的研究结果表明，这一结果可能是由保险覆盖政策驱动的。这些发现表明，制药营销工作可能会产生意想不到的公共卫生影响。
