Objective: This study aimed to quantify the association between pharmaceutical industry payments to physicians for pimavanserin and both pimavanserin prescription volume and Medicare expenditures.
Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study used 2016 and 2017 data from Open Payments and the Medicare Part D Prescriber Public Use Files. The authors used Poisson regression models to quantify the association between physician payments for pimavanserin and pimavanserin prescription volume and linear regression models to quantify the association with Medicare expenditures for pimavanserin.
Results: Of 1,609 physicians who prescribed pimavanserin, 45% received payments, which totaled to $6,369,922. Each $10,000 in physician payments was associated with a 14% increase in pimavanserin prescription volume (incident rate ratio=1.14, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.13-1.14). Every $100 in physician payments was associated with a $175.84 increase in Medicare pimavanserin expenditures (95% CI=$161.55-$190.13).
Conclusions: Extensive physician payments have been associated with increased pimavanserin prescription volume and Medicare expenditures.
Keywords: Medicare expenditures; Physician payments; Psychoses; conflict of interest; drug prescribing; pimavanserin.