US Physicians Received Billions From Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Industry, New Research Finds

Despite potential conflicts of interest, more than half of eligible physicians received a payment from a pharmaceutical drug or device maker over 10 years.

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U.S. physicians received more than $12 billion in payments from the pharmaceutical and medical device industry over a 10-year period, according to a new analysis.

A research letter published on March 28 in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the industry made over 85 million payments to more than 820,300 (57 percent) of eligible physicians across 39 specialties from 2013 to 2022. Nearly 94 percent of the payments were related to one or more marketed medical products.