In 2005, the Senate Committee on Finance (Committee) initiated an inquiry into educational grants for continuing medical education (CME) programs. This inquiry began after reports that drug companies were using the grants to promote off-label uses of their drugs, i.e., uses that had not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The findings of that inquiry were released in a Committee staff report in April 2007.' The Committee's inquiry revealed that the pharmaceutical industry spent more than dollar1 billion a year to fund CME programs.
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