OPIOIDES: Mas Rx después de cenar...

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It's just lunch? Maybe not, researchers found after sifting the data on free meals and opioid prescription numbers. 
A new JAMA analysis published Monday found that the more meals opioid drugmakers bought for physicians in 2014, the higher the number of opioids prescribed in 2015.

Each additional meal purchased was associated with an increase of 0.7% in opioid claims by doctors, according to the research published in JAMA. Meals were the perk most frequently accepted by doctors—more than 97,000 physicians let pharma pick up the tab for breakfasts, lunches or dinners for a total of $1.81 million spent by pharma companies in the study year.

The paper looked at more than just paid meals, though: The analysis included speaker fees, travel, consulting fees and education, spending that totted up to $9.07 million in 2014. 

Insys Therapeutics, which markets Subsys fentanyl spray and is under federal investigation for its marketing practices, spent the most in total nonresearch payments to doctors during the year at $4.54 million, followed by Teva at $869,000, and Johnson & Johnson's Janssen unit at $854,251.

The study had its limitations, noted Scott Hadland, a pediatrician and addiction specialist who helmed the study. Physicians who received industry payments may have been predisposed to prescribing opioids—essentially, it’s possible the drugmakers paid, wined and dined opioid-friendly doctors, not vice versa. Still, the association validates other, similar findings and should merit action, the authors proposed in the paper’s discussion. (Más)