Florida Neurologist Earns Tens Of Thousands Speaking For Eli Lilly
Remember that list Eli Lilly recently released detailing what doctors it’s paying $22 million in consulting fees to? Well, the St. Petersburg Times had a great piece the other day on one of Lilly’s top doctors in the Tampa Bay area, who is making oodles speaking on behalf of Lilly’s drugs.
“Lilly’s top earner in the Tampa Bay area was Dr. Maria-Carmen Wilson, a neurologist who is director of Tampa General Hospital’s Headache & Pain Center and a professor at USF College of Medicine. She also is director of USF’s headache medicine fellowship program, co-director of the division of pain medicine and associate director of both the neurology residency program and pain medicine fellowship program. Her annual salary from USF is $195,410.95.
“Despite her busy schedule at the university, Wilson found time to moonlight for Lilly, which paid her $54,400 in the first quarter. That put Wilson, 53, among the company’s most highly compensated doctors nationwide. In Florida, Wilson ranked second only to Miami internist Manuel Suarez-Barcelo, who received $65,100 from Lilly.”
That those amounts were only for the first quarter of the year astonishes me.
Wilson was hocking–I mean was speaking to her valued and no doubt awestruck colleagues about–Cymbalta, Lilly’s anti-depressant which is also approved for fibromyalgia and peripheral neuropathy in diabetics. Wilson didn’t return the paper’s request for comment and only reported her outside work for Lilly to USF earlier this month, according to the paper.
Considering how weak the evidence is for Cymbalta’s analgesic effect, you’ve got to wonder what it is Wilson tells other doctors.
I’m not a big fan of bans or restrictions on people making outside income, regardless of their profession, but when it’s doctors who are alleged scientists doing this kind of thing then the public needs to know what’s up. So do the doctors’ patients. While I’m glad Lilly made its payouts public, I really wish that there much less payola in the medical system in this country.
Related posts:
Posted in Furious Seasons