One of the most important questions that emerged was about the connection between doctors and pharma. There is a large population of people with MS who feel wary of big pharma. The question is: Do doctors go so far as to make a profit when they write you a prescription for a drug created by pharma?
MyCounterpane Founder Kate Milliken sat down with Dr. Timothy Coetzee, PhD, the Chief Advocacy, Services & Research Officer for The National MS Society to answer questions submitted by people online who are living with MS.
Watch the video to see what Dr. Coetzee has to say about between doctors, pharma and profit and how you can empower yourself with the truth.
Other posts from the Dr. Coetzee Q&A Series
What Is The Cost And Length Of A Clinical Trial For A New MS Drug?
400,000 People Are Estimated To Have MS. Is This True?
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Actually they do accept money from pharmaceutical companies all the time to prescribe drugs. It’s just not out in the open. My previous doctor, Dr. Daniel Mikol of the University of Michigan was receiving payments for influencing his patients to take Rebif. The University of Michigan never explained anything to me, they set me up with a new neurologist without even asking me or explaining the reasons for it. Dr. Mikol left and went on to a hospital in Boston. If you follow the blog that the wheelchair kamikaze writes, about six months ago he published a list of doctors that have received unbelievable amounts of payments from several pharmaceutical companies. Some of them hundreds of thousands of dollars. It happens all the time. I have several friends who are physicians and they have told me that as well.