COMPANIES Merck paid more than $3m in speaker fees to US doctors during the second quarter of this year, according to figures from the company that represent a step towards greater transparency in the New Jersey-based pharmaceutical group’s commercial links with prescribers.
The company has provided less information, however, than Eli Lilly, which in recent months became the first big US pharma to release a detailed list of payments made to doctors, with names and addresses, in exchange for consultancy services.
