Table 2.
Characteristics of pharmaceutical industry spending on educational events for healthcare professionals from the Educational Events databases
| Company | October 2011–September 2015 | October 2015–April 2018* | ||||
| Merck | MSD | Total | Merck | MSD | Total | |
| Total cost, $ (%) | 2 146 816 (55.0) | 1 755 776 (45.0) | 3 902 592 | 422 194 (68.1) | 197 477 (31.9) | 619 671 |
| Median event cost, $ (IQR) | 1000 (300–2500) | 310 (133–1789) | 684 (167–2136) | 1571 (1090 –3577) | 18 636 (5000–22 000) | 2000 (1,106–5500) |
| Total attendances, No. (%)† | 12 287 (53.3) | 10 763 (46.7) | 23 050 | 4224 (63.5) | 2424 (36.5) | 6648 |
| Median attendees/event, no. (IQR) | 20 (11–38) | 11 (5–20) | 14 (8–27) | 23 (15–40) | 120 (66–140) | 27 (16–63) |
| Total events, no. (%) | 407 (46.2) | 474 (53.8) | 881 | 76 (85.4) | 13 (14.6) | 89 |
| Professional status of attendees, no. events (%)ঠ| ||||||
| Medical practitioners | 209 (51.4) | 314 (66.2) | 523 (59.4) | 59 (77.6) | 10 (76.9) | 69 (77.5) |
| General practitioners | 124 (30.5) | 10 (2.1) | 134 (15.2) | 35 (46.1) | 1 (7.7) | 36 (40.4) |
| Fertility specialist doctors/obstetricians and gynaecologists | 77 (18.9) | 303 (63.9) | 380 (43.1) | 19 (25.0) | 9 (69.2) | 28 (31.5) |
| Unspecified fertility clinicians | 222 (54.5) | 3 (0.6) | 225 (25.5) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| Nurses | 279 (68.6) | 278 (58.6) | 527 (59.8) | 34 (44.7) | 7 (53.8) | 41 (46.1) |
| Fertility nurses | 196 (48.2) | 95 (20.0) | 291 (33.0) | 10 (13.2) | 5 (38.5) | 15 (16.9) |
| Scientists | 165 (40.5) | 121 (25.5) | 286 (32.5) | 0 (0.0) | 3 (23.1) | 3 (3.4) |
| Embryologists and fertility scientists | 135 (32.2) | 70 (14.8) | 205 (23.3) | 0 (0.0) | 2 (15.4) | 2 (2.2) |
| Event organiser, no. of events (%)‡ | ||||||
| Fertility clinic | 249 (61.2) | 247 (52.1) | 496 (56.3) | 52 (68.4) | 3 (23.1) | 55 (61.8) |
| Professional medical organisation | 117 (28.7) | 140 (29.5) | 256 (29.1) | 20 (26.3) | 8 (61.5) | 28 (31.5) |
| Pharmaceutical company¶ | 35 (8.6) | 3 (0.6) | 38 (4.3) | |||
| Hospital/health district | 5 (1.2) | 32 (6.8) | 37 (4.2) | 0 (0.0) | 2 (15.4) | 2 (2.3) |
| Other/unspecified | 1 (0.3) | 53 (11.2) | 54 (6.1) | 4 (5.3) | 0 (0.0) | 4 (4.5) |
| Type of event, n (%)†§ | ||||||
| Conference | 72 (17.7) | 107 (22.6) | 181 (20.3) | 8 (10.5) | 10 (76.9) | 18 (20.2) |
| Journal club | 52 (12.8) | 226 (47.7) | 278 (31.6) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| Workshop/training programme | 7 (1.7) | 17 (3.6) | 24 (2.7) | 3 (7.6) | 2 (7.7) | 5 (8.9) |
| In-service | 0 (0.0) | 15 (3.2) | 15 (1.7) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| Lecture tour | 4 (1.0) | 10 (2.1) | 14 (1.1) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| Educational/clinical meeting, duration <3 hours | 226 (55.3) | 85 (17.7) | 309 (35.1) | 52 (68.4) | 1 (7.7) | 53 (59.5) |
| Educational/clinical meeting, duration 3–6 hours | 30 (7.4) | 6 (1.3) | 36 (4.1) | 6 (7.9) | 0 (0.0) | 6 (62.0) |
| Educational/clinical meeting, duration >6 hours | 16 (3.9) | 8 (1.7) | 24 (2.7) | 7 (9.2) | 0 (0.0) | 7 (7.9) |
*Unlike the Educational Events 2011–2015 database, the Educational Events 2015–2018 database does not capture events hosted by the pharmaceutical company or company sponsorship of events where modest food and beverages supplied directly by the company are the only means of their support.
†One attendee may have multiple attendances.
‡Percentages are column percentages.
§Percentages do not add to 100 because multiple types of professionals could attend an event; some professions not shown.
¶Pharmaceutical industry run events are not captured for the period October 2015–April 2018.
MSD, Merck Sharp & Dohme.