Study: Drug Companies Paid $11.5 Million to Gabapentinoid Prescribers

Drug company payments may be influencing doctors to prescribe brand name gabapentinoids — pain-killing drugs sometimes used as a substitute for opioids — rather than less expensive generics, according to a study published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine. The study, by Taeho Greg Rhee from the University of Connecticut, and colleagues from Yale University, looked at prescribing under the Medicare Part D program. But some say a similar connection between drug company payments and prescribing is possible in workers’ compensation. “It’s likely to ...