Public Hearing Set for Cryan’s Plan To License Drug Reps

Acting In Response To Payment Scheme to Prescribe Addictive Painkillers

TRENTON – Acting in response to the admission by a former sales rep for a major pharmaceutical company that her drug company engaged in a bribery scheme to get doctors to prescribe highly-addictive painkillers, a Senate committee has scheduled a public hearing on a proposal by Senator Joe Cryan to license the “pharmaceutical representatives” who promote the sale of prescription drugs to the medical community.

Senator Cryan’s bill, S-2591, entitled the Pharmaceutical Representative Licensing Act, requiring the licensing of pharmaceutical representatives by the State Board of Medical Examiners, will be discussed in a public hearing by the Senate Commerce Committee on Monday, June 11, at 1:00 p.m. in Room 6, First Floor, State House Annex, Trenton.

“The opioid crisis that is causing an epidemic of addiction and overdose deaths has been fueled in large part by prescription drugs that are manufactured and marketed by the pharmaceutical industry,” said Senator Cryan, the vice chair of the Commerce Committee. “These medications have been overprescribed and oversold by drug companies that make obscene profits with drug reps who appear to be bribing doctors to increase sales. Some of these pharmaceutical reps are acting like drug dealers in pinstripe suits.”

Overdose deaths have surged in New Jersey, totaling more than 2,200 between 2016 and 2017.

“This public hearing will give us the forum and the opportunity to learn more about the issue and the practices of marketing prescription drugs,” said Senator Nellie Pou, the chair of the Commerce Committee. “We can work to determine if there is a problem in how these medications are sold and what can be done to ensure safe practices.”

A New Jersey sales rep for Insys Therapeutics, Inc., admitted in court to giving kickbacks to doctors who gave out prescriptions for the company’s potent pain medication Subsys – a form of fentanyl.  As part of the plea deal, the drug rep admitted the payments made to the doctors as “speaker’s fees” were actually rewards for prescribing more Subsys,

Other reports have documented the misconduct of drug company reps in pushing opioid prescriptions, often coupled with gifts and payments to the prescribing doctors.  Reps for Purdue and Abbott Laboratories were implicated in overprescribing OxyContin with misleading claims, gifts and payments.

An investigation by NJ Advance Media  found that between 2013 and 2015 alone doctors in New Jersey received at least $1.67 million in “speaker’s fees” from companies marketing various forms of the extremely potent opioid fentanyl for “off market” prescriptions – uses not approved by the FDA.

“We have invited consumer groups and pharmaceutical representatives from across the industry to participate,” said Senator Cryan. “We know that many of these companies are doing the right thing with policies that require training and protocols for responsible practices. This hearing will give these companies a public forum to show the right ways to operate and what can be done better to corral bad actors.”

Under the bill, the board would be able to suspend or revoke the license of a pharmaceutical representative for “grossly unprofessional conduct.”  Continuing education credits would be required for license renewal in areas including ethics, pharmacology, laws and regulations governing the marketing of prescription opioid drugs and alternatives to opioids for managing and treating pain.

The bill would define a “pharmaceutical representative” as an individual licensed to engage in the marketing or promoting of pharmaceuticals to practitioners. The legislation would require the reps to report on the contacts made with physicians, identify what drugs were discussed and any gifts or compensation made to physicians. AdChoices

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