[PioneerPress] A bill that would expand the public reporting of gifts, royalties and other payments to Minnesota physicians was tabled Wednesday by a Senate business committee that feared its impact on medical research and job growth.

Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, argued that expanded reporting would expose the conflicts of interest that occur when doctors receive anything from free travel to research grants to pens bearing drug company logos.

Executives from Minnesota’s robust medical device industry countered that broader reporting of their payments and contract relationships with doctors would increase their administrative costs and stifle innovation. A representative for PhRMA, the drug-manufacturing trade group, also testified that free vacations for doctors and expensive dinners are things of the past.

“We do not give lavish gifts,” PhRMA’s Khalil Nuri said. “That’s a straight fact. Those were times of old in the 1990s and before.”

In 1993, Minnesota was the first state to require pharmaceutical companies to report each year how much they give doctors in the form of gifts, meals, travel expenses, research grants, lecture fees and other payments. Marty wanted to expand the state’s reporting — eliminating a $50 per doctor minimum — and also require medical device manufacturers to report payments.

Direct marketing to doctors can be harmful, he said, when it pushes bad drugs such as Vioxx, a widely prescribed arthritis drug that was pulled from the market because of heart risks.

“The reason it was prescribed so heavily was because it was heavily, heavily marketed,” Marty said, “and it killed people.”

Marty backed off the inclusion of device-makers such as Medtronic, Boston Scientific and St. Jude, which are major employers in the state. However, the device-makers still testified in opposition, because they are becoming more like pharmaceutical companies as they develop biologic and drug devices.

“Now, there are all kinds of biologics that bridge the gap between devices and pharmaceuticals,” said Howard Root, chief executive of Vascular Solutions, a device company based in Maple Grove.

Drug company payment records are sent each year to the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy. A Pioneer Press analysis of those records last May tallied $88 million in payments to doctors, nurses and medical institutions between 2002 and 2007.

“Drug companies aren’t stupid,” testified Peter Wyckoff, former executive director of the Minnesota Senior Federation. “They don’t give you pens for no reason.”

At least four senators on the Business, Industry and Jobs Committee said they would vote against the bill because of concerns that it would harm the state’s medical device industry. In reaction, Marty asked the chairman to simply table the bill rather than allow it to be voted down.

Many hospitals and health plans have already restricted the access that drug salespeople can have with doctors, and some have banned pens and other gifts that bear pharmaceutical logos. The University of Minnesota is considering tighter ethics standards. Lawmakers such as U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, are backing federal reporting as well.

Jeremy Olson can be reached at 651-228-5583.