WASHINGTON --- Senator Chuck Grassley has asked leaders among pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, to describe their efforts to enhance the transparency of financial benefits they receive from drug makers. Grassley also has asked the PBMs for their views on recommendations from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission that PBMs be subject to a national disclosure requirement.
The bipartisan Physician Payments Sunshine Act, which Grassley co-authored with Senator Herb Kohl, would require annual public reporting by drug, device and biologic manufacturers of payments made to physicians nationwide.
For several years, Grassley has conducted extensive oversight and sought disclosure of industry financial ties with several groups including research physicians, medical schools,
medical journals, continuing medical education companies, and patient advocacy non-profit organizations. He has found cases where there was vast disparity between drug-company payments received and reported by leading medical researchers.
In response to Grassley’s work, the National Institutes of Health soon will enact new disclosure guidelines for federal grant recipients. A number of drug companies have begun disclosing financial relationships voluntarily
“I’m interested in meaningful transparency," Grassley said. “Letting the sun shine in and making information public is basic to building people’s confidence in medicine."
Grassley’s letters CVS Caremark Corporation, Express Scripts, Inc. and the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association are posted with this news release at http://finance.senate.gov.
