How Much Does Your Doctor Take from Drug Companies?

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.

Kimelman, Alan Brenner

Habis, Joseph Antoine

Bauman, Patricia M

Kimelman, Alan Brenner

Bauman, Patricia M