Big Pharma Is Paying Doctors to Prescribe Drugs for Multiple Sclerosis
Description
STORY AT-A-GLANCE
An analysis showed that 78.5% of neurologists received payments from pharmaceutical companies, with doctors receiving more money prescribing more multiple sclerosis (MS) drugs from those companies
Payment amounts create dose-dependent effects. Even $50 payments slightly influenced prescribing patterns, while $5,000 payments nearly doubled likelihood of favoring specific company drugs
Non-consulting fees like speakership appearances accounted for two-thirds of total payments, creating ongoing relationships and brand familiarity among physicians
A combination of smart sun exposure and vitamin D3 supplementation can help manage MS. For best results, you’ll need to minimize vegetable oil intake and maintain levels between 60 and 80 ng/mL
Optimizing gut microbiota through proper carbohydrate intake, gradual fiber increases, and minimizing processed foods also supports MS management without pharmaceutical intervention
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease wherein the protective sheath surrounding your nerves is attacked. When flare-ups occur, numbness, tingling, weakness, vision problems, fatigue, and balance issues appear.1
Drugs are often the first line of treatment for treating MS, and these include interferon beta medicines, teriflunomide, fingolimod, and corticosteroids.2 But while prescribing pharmaceuticals is the norm nowadays, investigations show that Big Pharma is paying doctors to prescribe MS-specific drugs, causing natural treatments to fall on the wayside.
MS Drug Prescribers Were Paid and Prescribed
In a study published in BMJ Open, researchers linked Medicare Part D prescribing data with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Open Payments database to examine how money flowing from drug companies to neurologists lined up with prescribing MS drugs.3 The sample size covered 7,401 neurologists who had written at least 11 prescriptions for MS drugs in a given year, adding up to over 3.1 million prescriptions during 2015 to 2019.
Big Pharma bribed doctors — The analysis showed that 5,809 doctors 78.5% of the study population received at least one payment from a drug company during the five-year study window, adding up to $163.6 million in total.
<label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false">Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published</label>This means that neurologists likely have some level of financial interaction with the companies that make MS drugs instead of being offered alternatives. Moreover, those interactions were not evenly distributed 95% of all the money went to just the top 10% of recipients, which shows how heavily drug companies focus on a smaller group of high-volume MS drug prescribers.
Money influences prescriptions — When the researchers analyzed prescription volume, they found a consistent link doctors who received any kind of payment wrote more prescriptions overall than those who did not.
<label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false">Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published</label>The steepest rises were seen among those who received consulting fees, speaking honoraria, or travel and lodging covered by the drugmakers, signaling a more formal relationship with the pharmaceutical industry.
A dose-dependent relationship was observed — Even small payments were associated with changes in prescribing drugs $50 slightly shifted the odds, but $5,000 nearly doubled the likelihood that the doctor's prescribing would favor that company's drugs.
<label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false">Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published</label>The study also found that payments sustained over time and those received most recently were linked with the highest levels of brand prescribing. In other words, the closer in time and the more frequent the payment, the stronger the influence toward prescribing that particular drug.
A breakdown of payment types — Non-consulting fees like speaker engagements and educational presentations made up two-thirds of the total money distributed, with a median of more than $54,000 per recipient. As a consumer and patient, this is an important detail because it shows that the voices leading medical conferences that eventually shape peer opinions are often financially linked to the companies whose drugs are being featured.
The researchers also examined cases where neurologists received payments from multiple companies at once. Those who were paid by two or more drugmakers had the highest overall prescription volumes and were most likely to receive ongoing year-after-year payments.
The payments function as a feedback loop — Money creates brand familiarity and goodwill, which encourages prescribing. In turn, it keeps the doctor on the company's radar for future engagement. Speaking engagements and advisory boards create repeated points of contact, strengthening that relationship over time.
For anyone deciding between MS drugs, the findings here will help you become a more discerning patient, ultimately making you take control of your own health. If your neurologist recommends a particular brand, it would be wise to ask whether they have financial ties to the company making that drug. Remember, it's not about distrust it's about making sure your decision is grounded in what is best for your health, not simply what is most familiar to your doctor because of industry influence.
Industry Payments Have Been Going on for Years
Digging deeper into the issue, an earlier study published in Neurology analyzed the CMS Open Payments database (from a different timeframe) to examine how often neurologists received money or other transfers of value from drug and device manufacturers.4
The goal of the researchers was to measure not just how many neurologists were involved but also how much was paid, for what purposes, and by which companies. They investigated 13,479 neurologists practicing in the United States and found that 51% received at least one non-research payment that year, with a total of $6.2 million distributed.
There is a select group of preferred doctors prescribing industry drugs — The median payment was just $81 per physician, but the money was not spread evenly. Similar to the BMJ Open study, the top 10% of neurologists in this study collected much of the money 84.5%, to be exact totaling over $5.2 million.
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