Investigative journalists find Big Pharma pays professors to help justify expensive drugs

The pharmaceutical industry has launched a multi-year, multimillion-dollar campaign to fend off its critics. Reporters at ProPublica investigated how the industry is defending rising drug costs.

The investigation revealed that the industry hired leading economists and health care experts at the nation’s top universities to write scholarly articles and speak publicly about the merits of newly developed drugs to treat hepatitis C. The drugs are under extra scrutiny because treatments take three months and cost as much as $1,000 per day.

While collaboration between higher education and industry partners routinely occurs, ProPublica found that university professors who were paid Pharma consultants did not always disclose their relationships.

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