Cephalon

Two pharmaceutical companies that are among the biggest payers of fees to doctors reduced such spending last year by double-digit percentages, as greater transparency sheds light on the hundreds of millions of dollars the industry pays physicians for marketing and research efforts.Reduced spending on dinners and other events where drug makers pay expert doctors to give presentations to peers about certain drugs and diseases became a big source of the declines for Pfizer Inc. (PFE) and GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK). Also, layoffs of pharmaceutical-sales representatives and patent expirations for big-selling drugs have resulted in fewer sales calls on doctors, and thus fewer free lunches provided to physicians' offices.The declines, though, weren't universal. Some drug makers increased payments, while others implemented new payment-reporting systems that made year-over-year comparisons difficult. But recently released numbers suggest some companies have used the more detailed data they have ...

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