MRA alarmed over disclosure rules in Massachusetts

US-- New rules in Massachusetts requiring public disclosure of payments made by drug companies to doctors, including survey incentives, “will severely hurt research with healthcare practitioners,” according to the Marketing Research Association (MRA).

The MRA said the regulations released by the state's Public Health Council “will make practitioners less likely to participate in vital survey research that provides enormous benefits to the public”.

“Reduced participation will lead to less research performed in Massachusetts, resulting in significant loss of jobs and income – something that Massachusetts can ill afford in this time of economic hardship,” the association warned.

The MRA is calling on research agencies, employees, friends and family who live in the state to lobby officials in a bid to change the rules.

Action by the association recently helped defeat similar proposed legislation in Maryland, Rhode Island and Mississippi.

The MRA said that research incentives to healthcare practitioners are frequently being caught up in attempts at the state level to restrict “gifts” to practitioners from pharmaceutical, medical device and medical supply manufacturers. Such “gifts” are assumed to be buying influence on behalf of the manufacturers, the MRA said.

Author: Brian Tarran