A Five-Year Analysis of Industry Payments to Sleep Neurologists From 2014 Through 2018

Abstract

Background and objectives Sleep medicine has been one of the fastest-growing medical fields in recent years. The industry plays a big role in developing new medications and devices for both diagnosis and treatment of sleep-related problems. We analyzed payments made by industry to physicians from 2014 through 2018 based on the Open Payments Program data. Methods Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Open Payment Program and American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology databases were explored to elicit financial relationships between industry and sleep neurologists. Results Payments made by industry to sleep neurologists have been steadily increasing from 2014 through 2018. Approximately 16% to 22% of sleep certified neurologists received payments from industry during the study period. Interestingly, the payments made to the top 10% of the sleep physicians contributed approximately 85% to 96% of the total payments. The top two categories to which the highest payments were made were compensation for services and royalty and/or licensing fees. Silenor® (doxepin), Xyrem® (sodium oxybate), Aptiom® (eslicarbazepine acetate), Belsomra® (suvorexant), and Fycompa® (perampanel) were most of the drugs, which made the highest payments, that got approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the last decade. Conclusions It seems that the industry is spending significant amounts of money in educating the physicians and in marketing the newer drugs. This analysis of the data on payments from industry is very useful in identifying any potential conflicts of interest from physicians. Further analyses are needed to study the trends of physician practice behavior and decision making.

Industry Payments to Nephrologists in the United States

“…Such information about eligible payments has been available through the CMS OPP website since August 2013. Physician­-industry financial relationships have been reported in several clinical specialties [ 7 , 8 ], and this study reports the trends and details of such payments in the field of nephrology.…”

Increase but pronounced regional disparities in gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) prescriptions among Medicaid and Medicare patients

“…the precursor of GHB) drug consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic (10). Sodium oxybate was ranked the second drug for the most number of payments made by pharmaceutical companies to sleep medicine (11). There have also been concerns about newer GHB formulations costing over one-hundred thousand per patient per year (8) for pharmacotherapies that are not disease modifying (4).…”