NPR
Investigation: Patients’ Drug Options Under Medicaid Heavily Influenced By Drugmakers
July 18, 2018
By LIZ ESSLEY WHYTE, JOE YERARDI, ALISON KODJAK

Drug companies have infiltrated nearly every part of the process that determines how their drugs will be covered by Medicaid…

At the Texas meeting alone, 12 people advocated for the state’s list to include brand-name antipsychotic drugs, especially the expensive ones. Five of the speakers worked for drug companies. One represented a patient advocacy group that gets significant funding from drugmakers. At least four of the remaining six, including Patel, had ties to drugmakers despite claiming to represent themselves.

Another psychiatrist, Matthew Brams, praised injectable mental health drugs and mentioned that he had researched them in the past. But he did not disclose the more than $181,000 their makers Otsuka and Alkermes PLC paid him to speak about them over the past two years, according to the federal Open Payments database.

Patel, Brams, Otsuka and Alkermes did not respond to requests for comment…