State and Federal “Sunshine Acts” Shift KOL Marketing Tactics

Historically, biological, pharmaceutical and medical device firms ("firms") marketed products to health care providers ("provider") through the provision of clinical information as well as a variety of promotional marketing programs which included various incentives such as free meals, free trips, free CME, free office supplies, honoraria, speaker fees, paid consulting agreements, etc., ("remuneration"). Undisclosed paid endorsements of firm products by key opinion leader (KOL) physicians at academic research institutions arguably resulted in inefficient utilization of products with concomitant resulting financial and/clinical harms to payers and patients. By making such remuneration "transparent", regulators will be able to identify and prosecute abusive and/or illegal remuneration practices by firms and academic KOLs will arguably be more likely to abide by applicable conflict of interest policies.