According to their June 2009 report, "Pentagon Travel," there were 8,700 trips by DOD personnel paid for by the healthcare industry, at a price tag of more than $10 million, with sponsors that included drug and device makers as well as health foundations and trade groups often funded by those companies.
"Drug companies and device manufacturers spent about $1.7 million for more than 1,400 trips taken by DOD doctors, medical researchers, pharmacists, and other health care employees over the decade, creating relationships that pose serious conflict of interest issues, according to medical ethics experts," the Center said in a study summary titled, "Medical Industry Showers DOD with Free Travel."
"Of special interest to the industry were DOD employees who prescribe, purchase, or recommend the use of drugs or medical equipment," the Center notes.
DOD's pharmacy system employees, who can influence which drugs are selected at base pharmacies, took more than 400 trips, worth over $400,000, from medical industry sources, according to the Center's analysis.
The review found drug companies paid more than $115,000 for trips to destinations that included Orlando, Las Vegas, San Diego, New York City, New Orleans, Paris, and Rome.
Shahram Ahari worked as a sales rep for Eli Lilly in 1999 and 2000, and described how he used free meals, trips, and unrestricted grants to subtly seduce civilian physicians into prescribing Lilly's drugs. The strategy was to make friends with doctors and pharmacists to get them talking about the drugs and then reward them with additional perks for prescribing the drugs.
"The return on dividends is phenomenal," Ahari says in the summary. "If it costs them a thousand dollars for a dinner, that's a [patient's drug] payment for one month."
"If they fly you on the Concord to Paris for five grand, even if they get one patient out of it, it's a lifetime of cash," he pointed out.
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