Nearly 80% of US neurologists prescribing drugs for multiple sclerosis (MS) received at least one pharma industry payment, with higher volume prescribers more likely to be beneficiaries, finds a 5 year analysis of Medicare database payments, published in the open access journal BMJ Open. And those in receipt of these payments were more likely to prescribe that company’s drugs, especially if the sums involved were larger, sustained, and recent, the findings indicate. Because of the lifelong nature of MS, effective therapies are usually continued indefinitely unless a patient’s clinical response changes, explain the researchers. And MS drug prescriptions are Medicare’s...