60 Massachusetts Docs Get Money From Eli Lilly To Promote Its Drugs

News is out in the Boston Globe that Eli Lilly's recently-released list of payouts to docs includes 60 Massachusetts doctors, including some at Boston Medical Center--the main hospital for the Boston University School of Medicine. The university has ordered the docs in question to stop doing talks for industry. It's refreshing to see a university take these sorts of things so seriously and so promptly.

How much money were doctors getting? What products were they promoting?

"At Boston Medical Center, Dr. Brian McGeeney, a neurologist, received $30,000 during that period [first three months of 2009], and Dr. Elliot Sternthal, an endocrinologist, was paid $11,587.50, according to a faculty registry on Lilly’s website."

McGeeney was promoting Cymbalta, Lilly's anti-depressant, presumably for fibromyalgia.