Food matters, at least to drug companies and physicians, according to a study published online this summer by JAMA Internal Medicine.
“Receipt of industry-sponsored meals was associated with an increased rate of prescribing the brand-name medication that was being promoted,” note the study’s authors. That said, “The findings represent an association, not a cause-and-effect relationship.”
Participants were physicians who wrote Medicare prescriptions in any of four drug classes:
- Statins
- Cardioselective ß-blockers
- Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin-receptor blockers (ACE inhibitors and ARBs)
- Selective serotonin and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs and SNRIs)
The researchers identified physicians who received industry-sponsored meals promoting the most-prescribed brand-name drug in each class:
- Rosuvastatin (Crestor, AstraZeneca PLC)
- Nebivolol (Bystolic, Allergan PLC)
- Olmesartan (Benicar, Daiichi Sankyo Co.)
- Desvenlafaxine (Pristiq, Pfizer Inc.)
Data analysis was performed from Aug. 20, 2015, to Dec. 15, 2015, based on industry payment data from the federal Open Payments Program for Aug. 1 through Dec. 31, 2013, and prescribing data for individual physicians from Medicare Part D, for all of 2013.
A total of 279,669 physicians received 63,524 payments associated with the four target drugs. Ninety-five percent of payments were meals, with a mean value of less than $20. Rosuvastatin represented 8.8 percent of statin prescriptions; nebivolol represented 3.3 percent of cardioselective ß-blocker prescriptions; olmesartan represented 1.6 percent of ACE inhibitor and ARB prescriptions; and desvenlafaxine represented 0.6 percent of SSRI and SNRI prescriptions.
Physicians who received a single meal promoting the drug of interest were:
- 18 percent more likely to prescribe rosuvastatin (Crestor) over other statins
- 70 percent more likely to prescribe nebivolol (Bystolic) over other ß-blockers
- 52 percent more likely to prescribe olmesartan (Benicar) over other ACE inhibitors and ARBs
- 118 percent more likely to prescribe desvenlafaxine (Pristiq) over other SSRIs and SNRIs
Receipt of additional meals and receipt of meals costing more than $20 were associated with higher relative prescribing rates.