Population based cohort study of pharmaceutical industry payments and delivery of non-recommended and low value cancer drugs

A population based cohort study in the United States estimated th association between oncologists’ receipt of payments from the pharmaceutical industry and delivery of non-recommended or low value interventions among their patients. The study included patients who were at risk for one of four non-recommended or low value interventions: denosumab for castration sensitive prostate cancer, GCSF for patients at low risk of neutropenic fever, nab-paclitaxel for cancers with no evidence of superiority over paclitaxel, and a branded drug in settings where a generic or biosimilar version was available. Oncologists were in receipt of industry payments for 30.2% of patients at risk for non-recommended denosumab, 28.3% of patients at risk for GCSF, 21.4% of patients at risk for nab-paclitaxel, and 31.2% of patients at risk for branded drugs. Industry payments to oncologists were associated with incrreased delivery of denosumab, GCSF, and nab-paclitaxel, but not branded drugs. The authors conclude that within some clinical scenarios, industry payments to physicians are associated with non-recommended and low value drug.