New Legislation Seeks the Creation of a Government-Sponsored Counter-Detailing Force to Subvert Prescription Drug Messaging by Drug Companies
August 1, 2008Yesterday, Pharmalot reported that U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) and several co-sponsors introduced the “Independent Drug Education and Outreach Act of 2008.” A similar version of the bill has reportedly been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. According to a press release from the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, the bill is intended “to provide doctors with unbiased information on prescription drugs,” and “will provide an important alternative to the way doctors currently get their information about drugs.”
If enacted, the bill would amend the Public Health Service Act to add § 904 – Prescription Drug Education and Outreach – to establish a program to award grants or contracts:
- For the development and production of educational materials concerning the evidence available on the relative safety, relative effectiveness, and relative cost of prescription drugs, non-prescription drugs, and non-drug interventions for treating selected conditions, for distribution to healthcare providers who prescribe such drugs and their patients; and
- For the development and implementation of a program to appropriately train and deploy health professionals to educate physicians and other drug prescribers concerning the relative safety, relative effectiveness, and relative cost of prescription drugs, non-prescription drugs, and non-drug interventions for treating selected conditions.