Trends in Dupilumab-Related Payments to Physicians Across Five Specialties

BackgroundDupilumab was first approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration in 2017 for atopic dermatitis and has since been approved for many other indications. The use of dupilumab has grown, but industry payments to physicians have yet to be explored.ObjectiveThe study objective is to characterize the change in payments by pharmaceutical companies to physicians for dupilumab-related promotional activities.MethodsData from 2017 to 2023 was extracted from the Open Payments website and filtered to determine the number of dupilumab-related payments to physicians, the amounts of these payments, the number of unique physicians that were paid, and the amount of money going towards different payment purposes.ResultsIn 2017, pharmaceutical companies paid a total of $6.1 million to allergists/immunologists, dermatologists, gastroenterologists, otolaryngologists, and pulmonologists for dupilumab-related activities. This amount grew to a total of $22.6 million in 2023. These specialties all experienced an increase in the number of unique physicians paid; the number of allergists/immunologists paid increased by 1.8-fold, dermatologists by 1.4-fold, gastroenterologists by 640-fold, otolaryngologists by 95-fold, and pulmonologists by 118-fold. Across all five specialties, pharmaceutical companies paid the most money for the purpose of non-consulting, non-continuing education speaker fees.ConclusionFrom 2017 to 2023, pharmaceutical companies have paid increasing numbers of payments to increasing numbers of unique allergists/immunologists, dermatologists, gastroenterologists, otolaryngologists, and pulmonologists for dupilumab-related promotional events.