Deval Should Veto Section 14 of the Senate Bill 2863

Holly Robichaud explains why.

Who isn’t for lower health care costs?  But sometimes the best intentions don’t produce the best results.

Section 14 of the Senate Bill 2863, An Act Promoting Cost Containment, Transparency and Efficiency in the Delivery of Quality Health Care would require public disclosure of payments valued at $50 or more between pharmaceutical research companies and health care providers.  Physicians’ names would appear on public websites.  As you may suspect this could hurt ongoing clinical research in Massachusetts.

Last month Governor Patrick signed into law the bio-tech bill containing $1 billion worth of incentives for that industry to grow here.  However, if Section 14 of S. 2863 is implemented we will see a significant loss of clinical trials which have in the past lead to important discoveries.  Aren’t we trying to encourage life science development?

According to the National Institute of Health, there are presently 5,673 clinical trials being conducted in the Commonwealth.  Many studies are recruiting patients.  Moreover, biopharmaceutical jobs are on the rise and we can expect another 15,000 jobs to be added by 2014.  Unfortunately, these gains will not be realized if the Governor signs into law section 14 which will deter doctors from participating in research. 

Dr. Anil Nair, an Assistant Professor at Boston University’s Department of Neurology has written an open letter to Deval Patrick, which I’m publishing in full in the extended entry: (more…)