Prescription drug manufacturers spent more than $16 million on direct-to-consumer advertising in West Virginia from July through December 2007, a report released Monday by the state Pharmaceutical Cost Management Council shows. State officials believe that number may be too low.

Spending disclosure forms filed by 111 pharmaceutical manufacturers also reveal 14,933 separate "gifts, grants or payments" to state physicians - ranging in amounts from $50 to $52,000 each - during those six months.

The long-awaited report is the first to attempt to determine how much drug companies spend in West Virginia to encourage patients to ask for, and doctors to prescribe, expensive brand-name prescription drugs.

However, acting state Pharmaceutical Advocate Shauna Phares acknowledged Monday's report provides only a somewhat blurry picture of what drug manufacturers are spending to encourage physicians to prescribe their brands of drugs.

For instance, the disclosures show that 99 drug manufacturers provided 13,998 "gifts, grants or payments" of between $50 to $1,250 - but offers no breakdowns by physician.

"What we're able to report is payments by company," Phares said Monday. "We cannot report a [per-physician] average with any sort of accuracy."

For years, pharmaceutical companies have provided inducements to physicians, ranging from catered office lunches and various trinkets, to paying costs for travel, speakers' fees, research and honoraria for attending seminars.

Monday's disclosure indicates that most of the gifts, grants and payments fell in the lower end of the range.

In addition to the nearly 14,000 payments of $1,250 or less, the report discloses:

At the high end, besides the one payment of between $51,250 and $52,000, there was one payment in the $43,750-to-$45,000 disclosure range, and three payments of between $36,250 and $37,500.

Prescription drug manufacturers spent more than $16 million on direct-to-consumer advertising in West Virginia from July through December 2007, a report released Monday by the state Pharmaceutical Cost Management Council shows. State officials believe that number may be too low.

Spending disclosure forms filed by 111 pharmaceutical manufacturers also reveal 14,933 separate "gifts, grants or payments" to state physicians - ranging in amounts from $50 to $52,000 each - during those six months.

The long-awaited report is the first to attempt to determine how much drug companies spend in West Virginia to encourage patients to ask for, and doctors to prescribe, expensive brand-name prescription drugs.

However, acting state Pharmaceutical Advocate Shauna Phares acknowledged Monday's report provides only a somewhat blurry picture of what drug manufacturers are spending to encourage physicians to prescribe their brands of drugs.

For instance, the disclosures show that 99 drug manufacturers provided 13,998 "gifts, grants or payments" of between $50 to $1,250 - but offers no breakdowns by physician.

"What we're able to report is payments by company," Phares said Monday. "We cannot report a [per-physician] average with any sort of accuracy."

For years, pharmaceutical companies have provided inducements to physicians, ranging from catered office lunches and various trinkets, to paying costs for travel, speakers' fees, research and honoraria for attending seminars.

Monday's disclosure indicates that most of the gifts, grants and payments fell in the lower end of the range.

In addition to the nearly 14,000 payments of $1,250 or less, the report discloses:

At the high end, besides the one payment of between $51,250 and $52,000, there was one payment in the $43,750-to-$45,000 disclosure range, and three payments of between $36,250 and $37,500.

Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, a Charleston physician and strong advocate of full disclosure of pharmaceutical companies' advertising and marketing expenditures, said Monday's report shows the need to refine the disclosure requirements.

"Clearly, the information is helpful in the sense we can see there are a lot of people getting various amounts of money, and some people are getting a lot of money," he said.

"I'm sure it's just the tip of the iceberg with some of this," Foster said of the initial disclosures.

He wants to see the report summarized for the Legislature, in hopes that legislators will come up with better disclosure requirements during the 2009 session.

Under the 2004 law, pharmaceutical companies have to disclosure the number of payments to physicians falling into the various categories of amounts, but do not have to disclose physicians by name.

Phares, meanwhile, said she believes the report's finding that 46 drug manufacturers spent $16,019,154 on direct-to-consumer advertising in West Virginia during the six months is underreported.

"It's probably lower than I thought it would be," she said, noting that state agencies alone spent more than $400 million on prescription drugs in 2007.

She said some pharmaceutical companies failed to estimate costs for reaching West Virginia consumers through national advertising campaigns, as required on the disclosures.

"We may have to give more guidance on that," she said.

Reach Phil Kabler at ph...@wvgazette.com or 348-1220.