Physician Research Resumes in Minnesota

In the US, research companies can once again legally conduct market research with Minnesota healthcare practitioners, following revision of a document restricting payments. The law now exempts payments for participation in bona fide market and opinion research.

The Minnesota Board of Pharmacy revised its guidelines after lobbying from CASRO (the Council of American Survey Research Organizations), MRA (Marketing Research Association), and PMRG (the Pharmaceutical Marketing Research Group).

The three associations worked together with the Board of Pharmacy and Office of the Minnesota Attorney General to clarify language in the guideline document, which had previously prevented pharma market research taking place in the state.

The Board of Pharmacy confirmed that the original document - which addressed the MN statute that prohibited pharma manufacturers' 'gifts to practitioners' - was never intended to prevent research companies from conducting research with healthcare practitioners on behalf of pharma clients.

It added that the intention of the original document was to prohibit pharma manufacturers and wholesale drug distributors from disguising 'marketing surveys' as legitimate market research in order to market, sell, or promote a drug to practitioners.

In support of Minnesota's and the Board of Pharmacy's intent to prohibit 'sugging' - or selling under the guise of research - LaToya Lang and Howard Fienberg of MRA said in a statement that 'sugging is antithetical to professional survey research codes and ethics and unacceptable to both survey research companies and the internal research departments at pharmaceutical companies.'

Web site: www.casro.org , www.mra-net.org and www.pmrg.org .