GSK Resumes Payments to Healthcare Professionals for Drug Product Promotion

GlaxoSmithKline announced it will begin paying doctors again to promote its products as part of changes to its policy for working with healthcare professionals (HCPs). The move reverses a 2013 decision to stop financially rewarding physicians to talk about its treatments.

Going forward, the drugmaker says it will make “fair market value payments” to HCPs for speaking about selected GSK drug products, their associated diseases and clinical practices at promotional events, such as national, satellite and speaker trainer meetings. The policy changes also mean that GSK will pay “reasonable” travel costs, except in the U.S., for HCPs to attend meetings prepared by GSK on data and clinical expertise. The company says it will also cover registration fees for remote congress webinars and webcasts, but will continue its policy of not paying for HCPs to attend local and international conferences.

The pharma giant says the policy changes — which take effect for select U.S. and Japanese products this month — will increase payment transparency and improve its sharing of new product data with HCPs, providing an enhanced understanding of its products and improving patient access.