Pharmaceutical Payments to Japanese Board-Certified Infectious Disease Specialists: A Four-year Retrospective Analysis of Payments from 92 Pharmaceutical Companies between 2016 and 2019

Abstract

Objective Conflict of interest with pharmaceutical companies is one of the most contentious issues in infectious diseases. However, there is a lack of whole picture of detailed payments in Japan. Study Design and Setting This retrospective study assessed financial relationships between pharmaceutical companies and all infectious disease specialists board-certified by the Japanese Association for Infectious Disease, using publicly disclosed payment data from 92 pharmaceutical companies. Descriptive analyses were conducted for the payments. Payment trends were examined by the generalized estimating equations. Results Of 1614 board-certified infection disease specialists, 1,055 (65.4%) received a total of $17,784,070 payments, corresponding to 21,680 instances between 2016 and 2019. The mean (SD) and median (IQR) were $16,857 ($45,010) and $3,183 ($938-$11,250) in payments. All board executive members of Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases received higher payments averaging $163,792. There were no significant changes in payments per specialist (annual change rate: -1.4% [95% CI: -4.7- 2.3%], p=0.48) and prevalence of specialists with payments (annual change rate: -1.4% [95% CI: -3.1-0.2%], p=0.093) over the four years. Conclusion There were substantial financial relationships between pharmaceutical companies and board-certified infectious disease specialists in Japan. Such personal payments must be restricted to a certain level to avoid potential conflict of interest.

Industry payments to allergists and clinical immunologists in the United States during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

“…As the payments were highly skewed, negative binomial regression GEE model for the payments per physician and linear log-linked regression GEE model with Poisson distribution for the number of physicians with payments were employed. 3,4 As the national emergency concerning the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in the United States on March 13, 2020, we divided the study period into before (January 2014 to February 2020) and during the pandemic (March to December 2020). To adjust the seasonality of the payments, we included the month variable in the ITS models.…”

“…The Gini index was used to assess the inequality of payment distribution. 4 Average relative annual changes in per-physician payments and number of physicians receiving payments were also estimated by the GEE models with panel-data of annual payments per physician. 3 Annual trend in total payment amounts was estimated by the robust-adjusted linear regression model.…”