Attorney General Stumbo Announces $362,000 Grant to UK
Program to Improve Drug Prescription Practices

FRANKFORT, KY (April 13, 2006) – Attorney General Greg Stumbo announced today that proceeds from a legal settlement with a drug manufacturer will be used to improve the quality of health care available to Kentucky’s citizens. A grant of $362,114 to improve drug prescription practices in Kentucky was awarded to Dr. Paul Dassow, Assistant Dean for Continuing Medical Education at the University of Kentucky.

Attorney General Stumbo, along with 50 other Attorneys General, took part in the national selection of 24 grantees for funding by the Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education Grant Program. More than $9,000,000 will be distributed over the next two years to grant recipients from respected research, educational and professional institutions across the country. The purpose of these grants is to educate health care professionals about pharmaceutical industry marketing practices and to provide strategies for accessing unbiased sources of information about drugs. The Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Grant Program is funded through the 2004 Attorneys General settlement resolving allegations that Warner Lambert violated state consumer protection laws when promoting the drug Neurontin for off- label uses.

This program will improve prescribing practices of health care professionals by increasing the knowledge professionals have to evaluate claims about pharmaceuticals made by the drug industry. It creates five educational modules addressing 1) the FDA approval process; 2) pharmaceutical marketing strategies, 3) access of unbiased data to critically evaluate pharmaceutical claims; 4) pharmaceutical rhetoric; and 5) case studies in cost-effective prescribing. The program will educate students and prescribers in Kentucky, and make an educational curriculum available nationwide.

"I am delighted that our settlement of this lawsuit has produced such a valuable program,” Attorney General Greg Stumbo said. “This grant to the University of Kentucky will provide independent, reliable information about drugs, so doctors don’t have to rely on one-sided drug company claims.”

The grant recipient also praised the program. “At times, more cost-effective drugs may be overlooked, partially due to pharmaceutical marketing,” said Dr. Paul Dassow, Assistant Dean for Continuing Medical Education for the UK College of Medicine and principal investigator on the grant. “We’re optimistic that this curriculum will improve the prescriber’s ability to evaluate and prescribe medicine in the most cost-effective manner.”

Currently, pharmaceutical companies spend more than $12 billion per year in the U.S. marketing their products, more than is spent on all medical education in this nation as a whole. The grant program is a step toward advancing independent prescriber and consumer education regarding the marketing of pharmaceutical products. Besides grants for prescriber education, there will also be grants to educate consumers on related issues. Overall, the Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Grant Program anticipates making over $20,000,000 in grants. Under the terms of the settlement, a Special Committee, comprised of permanent members from the Attorneys General offices of Florida, New York, Ohio, Oregon Texas and Vermont, and two year rotating positions from two other state Attorneys General offices, is responsible for administering the Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education Program. Representatives from the California and North Carolina Attorneys General offices will be completing their two year term on the Special Committee, and will soon be replaced by Attorney General representatives from the states of Maine and Washington. The Center for Evidence-based Policy at Oregon Health and Science University is the current grant administrator for the program. The Public Health Institute served as the prior Administrator.

These grants represent a concerted effort to develop educational materials for both physicians and consumers about the marketing techniques of the pharmaceutical industry, and provide information about how to critically evaluate the claims the pharmaceutical industry makes about its products. Recipients will influence the prescribing patterns of tens of thousands of physicians, clinical pharmacists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, psychiatric nurses, and future prescribers like medical and pharmacy students across the nation.

The initial grant recipients are:

University of Kentucky American Medical Association Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
University of Arizona Hektoen Institute Brigham & Women’s Hospital
University of Washington University of California – San Francisco University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill
University of Vermont Meyers Primary Care Institute Wake Forest University
Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine Dartmouth College University of Alabama-Birmingham
Portland VA Research Foundation Oregon Health Policy and Research Kaiser Health Plan of Colorado
Lovelace Clinic foundation Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professionals Georgetown University
University of Georgia School of Pharmacy National Center for Farmworker Health Federation of State Medical Boards Education and Research Foundation

The Special Committee will be conducting additional grant solicitations in the future. Information regarding future grants will be posted on the website for the National Association for Attorneys General, www.naag.org