A major drug maker announced Wednesday it will voluntarily report how much it pays doctors for giving advice and speeches on the company's behalf. The move comes amid a debate over what influence the money has on medical research and prescribing habits.

Eli Lilly and Company president and CEO John Lechleiter announced the company intends to post all payments of more than $500 in an online database that it plans to launch as early as the second half of 2009.

'We have a great deal of empirical evidence that gift giving can influence behaviour in terms of prescriptions, publishing positive findings but suppressing negative findings and generating enthusiasm for new drugs.'— Dr. Arthur Caplan

The posting will likely include the doctor's name or other identifying information, as well as why the payment was made, the company said.

By 2011, Lilly plans to expand the registry to include payments for travel, entertainment and gifts.

Investigations by the U.S. Senate suggested some university researchers failed to report millions of dollars of outside income from drug makers. University administrators and journal editors have said they lack a reliable way of verifying disclosures.

"The ethical handwriting is on the wall. Disclosure is coming. States are pushing for it, and once a few states do, it's hard to imagine the federal government won't line up behind," said Dr. Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

"I think that's a good thing because we have a great deal of empirical evidence that gift giving can influence behaviour in terms of prescriptions, publishing positive findings but suppressing negative findings and generating enthusiasm for new drugs."

"As Lilly continues to look for more ways to be open and transparent about our business, we've learned that letting people see for themselves what we're doing is the best way to build trust," Lechleiter said.

Bill would penalize failure to disclose

The company does not plan on reporting payments from 2008 or earlier.

Legislation before the U.S. Congress also does not require drug companies to report earlier payments.

Iowa Senator Charles Grassley applauded the announcement, but said he would continue to push for a law requiring disclosure of payments to doctors by drug and medical device manufacturers.

Grassley's bill proposed penalties of $1,000 US to $5,000 US for failure to report a payment, with an annual cap of $250,000 US for knowingly failing to disclose payments.

The American Medical Association and trade groups such as the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America have said they support the bill.

But the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen said the bill does not go far enough. The group is calling for the reporting bar to be lowered to $25 US per gift from $500 US.

"Most of what will wind up being disclosed is speaker's fees, consulting and research grants," said Dr. Peter Lurie, deputy director of the health research group at Public Citizen. "But most people want to know more than that. They want to know about meals, travel and that sort of thing. A lot of people will be cut out by the $500 annual limit."

Last year, Lilly became the first major drug company to publicly report educational grants for medical conferences and charitable contributions. In 2004, it was the first to publish extensive clinical trial data.

With files from the Associated Press