Amgen releases data on doc payments

At least 10 physicians received more than $20,000 in payments and other transfers of value from biotechnology giant Amgen in the first quarter of this year, according to newly public data published by the company.

As part of a corporate integrity agreement Amgen reached with the U.S. Justice Department in December over the marketing of its anemia drug Aranesp, the company is required to disclose payments and other transfers of value it makes to physicians. The Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based firm posted its first data set on Sunday, in a format that makes it difficult to transfer data into a spreadsheet format for analysis.

The 1,792-page (PDF) provides the name of the reportable party, the city he or she works in, the recipient, the nature of the payment and the payment amount. Amgen did not disclose total spending for the quarter.

The majority of the payments went to physicians for less than $100 in food costs. But some doctors received thousands of dollars in consulting fees.

Amgen reported that it paid $42,888 in consulting, food and travel to Dr. Gary Lyman, a professor of medicine in the medical oncology division at Duke University School of Medicine's internal medicine department.

Lyman said in an e-mail that the $42,000 payment was a research grant for the university, and he has notified the company that it should have been classified as research. The grant, he said, is being used to fund studies of supportive care. “I do not do consulting or ad boards or speaking for Amgen,” Lyman said. “The money supports research personnel (and) data collection on the side effects of chemotherapy.”

The company did not respond to requests for comment today.

An Amgen spokeswoman said in an e-mail last week that the data released as required by its corporate integrity agreement would align with requirements set out by the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, a provision in the 2010 healthcare reform law that will require drug and device manufacturers in the U.S. to comply with similar disclosure requirements.

Sunshine Act data collection is expected to begin in August, and the CMS will release the data in a public database in September of next year.

Physicians and others have said the disclosures may lead to fewer financial relationships between manufacturers and physicians. But doctors have become increasingly concerned that public disclosures of industry ties may raise patient questions about their credibility.

Follow Jaimy Lee on Twitter: @MHjlee