Inducement in the medical device industry: an exploratory literature study.

This report discusses the findings of an exploratory literature study on inducement in the medical
device sector. Inducement (or ‘gunstbetoon’ in Dutch) refers to posing money, services or goods for
the apparent objective of promoting the sales of a product. This is prohibited by the Dutch Act on
medical devices, with some specific exemptions. While inducement has been extensively studied in
the pharmaceutical industry, there exists a knowledge gap when it comes to the medical device
sector. This complicates supervision on this phenomenon by the Dutch Health and Youth Care
Inspectorate. In this study we explore the state of scientific knowledge on inducement in the medical
device sector and specifically focus on the scale, nature, consequences, and policy in Europe, Asia,
and the United States.