Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16444

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Mckenzie N, Ryle G
Grants a sales tool for implants
The Sydney Morning Herald 2009 Sep 7
http://www.smh.com.au/national/grants-a-sales-tool-for-implants-20090906-fctv.html

Full text:

THE aggressive marketing approach used by some companies to push their products can be found in numerous confidential documents drawn up by the giant US firm Medtronic and obtained by the Herald.

In 2007, Medtronic devised a secret marketing strategy to increase the use of its implants in Australian patients by giving doctors lucrative education grants.

A six-page Medtronic Australia marketing presentation states that the aim of its Global Fellowship Program – which pays doctors to further their education – is to secure ‘‘new business revenue streams’‘ and to ‘‘nurture and support potential customers’‘.

The ‘‘potential customers’‘ are the doctors who are given the education grants and who implant devices into patients.

The documents reveal that one of the ways the doctors given the scholarships will be encouraged to favour Medtronic’s products is by undertaking their education placements at ‘‘Medtronic-friendly sites,’‘ a reference to hospitals in which Medtronic products are used.

The documents state that if the company spends $1.5 million on fellowship grants, it can expect a ‘‘potential 200 per cent return on investment’‘.

A graph compares the expense of putting 18 doctors through the program with the potential revenue the doctors will return to the company.

In a separate 2009 letter seen by the Herald, a surgeon who was given a Medtronic education grant states that he intends to use Medtronic’s products because the company gave him a scholarship.

In response to questions about the documents, Medtronic’s chief executive, Jamie Stanistreet, told the Herald: ‘‘Medtronic Australasia senior management became aware of this program in mid 2007. The staff member involved was informed that the program was inappropriate and should immediately cease as it is not consistent with Medtronic Australasia Business Conduct Standards or the regulations governing the medical device industry.’‘

Other confidential files reveal that Medtronic gave $100,000 to an Australian medical research centre to fund the yearly salary of the centre’s assistant.

The files show Medtronic pays other Australian surgeons between $2000 and $3000 a day to work as company consultants – work that is undertaken both here and abroad. One contract states that among the services the consultant doctor will provide Medtronic are ‘‘rendering assistance in satisfying TGA concerning Medtronic products’‘.

Mr Stanistreet declined requests to be interviewed but responded to a list of written questions, including why his company spent $7625 on food last November at an educational event for 61 doctors at the exclusive Melbourne restaurant Jacques Reymond. He said the dinner was held so a Monash University professor, Ian Meredith, could present the results of a global study in which he was the lead investigator.

Dr Meredith, a cardiovascular expert, told the dinner audience that he was a paid consultant of Medtronic.

Mr Stanistreet defended his company’s decision several years ago to pay for a helicopter to fly another of its consultant surgeons from the Monash Medical Centre to the airport to avoid peak-hour traffic, but he would not say how much the trip cost.

‘‘This [the helicopter flight] was the only viable option to ensure timely attendance at an international conference without compromising patient safety,’‘ Mr Stanistreet said.

He also declined to reveal how many Australian doctors it pays as consultants. He said such arrangements had ‘‘been instrumental to the development of new therapies and the improvement of existing products’‘ and that they complied with the Australian code of conduct, which bans kickbacks to doctors and stipulates that all fees must be for genuine services.

Mr Stanistreet also said that all existing Medtronic education scholarships were not given to doctors, but to ‘‘teaching institutions who exercise control over the funds’‘.