A group of senior scientists at the National Institutes of Health charge that a three-pronged marketing campaign by Eli Lilly and Co. for Xigris, which is used to treat the deadly infection sepsis,
"orchestrated" the development of practice guidelines for the drug in order to drive sales.
In an article published in yesterday's
New England Journal of Medicine, the scientists
claim that Lilly is sponsoring lobbying efforts to turn the guidelines into quality standards. Hospitals that follow such quality measures receive higher payment from insurers.
The
primary author of the paper says that patients and physicians deserve guidelines that are free of industry bias. Lilly responds that "the campaign worked independently and autonomously," and says that
all funding was openly disclosed.
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