San Rafael doctors have taken at least $60,000 from drug companies over the last three years for meals, trips and lectures.
For years, drug companies hid numbers like that from consumers, but as a result of federal lawsuits, two years ago they began making them public on their websites, although not always plainly. The journalists at ProPublica have compiled a nationwide database of what doctors are taking. You can access it here by doctor's name or city.
The top local beneficiaries were family doctor Kenneth Richard Feingold, who took $53,000 from the drug company Merck in 2009 and 2010 as a speaker.
Merk, based in New Jersey, is known for products as the asthma medication Singulair, HPV vaccine Gardasil, and cholesterol-lowering drugs Vytorin and Zetia.
In 2008, the company agreed to pay more than $650 million to resolve allegations that it didn't pay proper rebates to government health programs and illegally paid health care providers as inducements to prescribe the company's products.
Not all drug companies have submitted their records of doctor interactions, according to ProPublica, the independent, non-profit organization of investigative reporters. Roughly about 40 percent of U.S. drug sales are represented by the companies that have.
Doctor Drug Company Period Category Amount Nisam, Merrill / Pulmonary And Critical Care Medicine Incorporated GSK 2009 Q2-Q4 Speaking $3,300 Belelcadi, Mounir Eli Lilly 2011 Q1 Meals $757 Belelcadi, Mounir Eli Lilly 2011 Q1 Travel $1,308 Policar, Michael Scott Merck 2009 Q3-Q Speaking $4,374 Feingold, Kenneth Richard Merck 2009 Q3-Q Speaking $25,250 Feingold, Kenneth Richard Merck 2010 Q1-Q4 Speaking $27,801Kimelman, Alan Brenner
Pfizer 2010 Q1-Q4 Meals $465Habis, Joseph Antoine
Pfizer 2010 Q1-Q4 Meals $253 Belelcadi, Mounir Pfizer 2010 Q1-Q4 Meals $443Bauman, Patricia M
Pfizer 2010 Q1-Q4 Meals $311Kimelman, Alan Brenner
Pfizer 2011 Q1 Meals $441Bauman, Patricia M
Pfizer 2011 Q1 Meals $266