Chuck Grassley, the Republican senator from Iowa, will propose a bill requiring drugmakers to disclose payments to docs for consulting, lectures and seminar attendance, The New York Times reports. Grassley is one of several lawmakers to propose a federal registry. Minnesota, Vermont and Maine have similar registries; other states are considering them.

In a speech on the Senate floor on Thursday, Grassley said he’s begun an investigation, noting most universities require academic researchers to disclose such payments. “I have sent letters to a handful of universities to understand how well such a reporting system actually works,” he said, adding that universities generally keep this info secret from patients, who have no way of knowing whether their doctor is on a drugmaker’s payroll.

Grassley charged universities don’t verify info filed by their professors. So “the only person who knows if the reported income is accurate and complete is the doctor who is receiving the money,” he said. And he wants drugmakers to disclose payments made to doc who bill the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs. Noting that voters can easily look up the contributions made to elected officials, he asked, “Shouldn’t we hold doctors to similar standards?”

“If there is a doctor getting thousands of dollars from a drug company - payments that might be affecting his or her objectivity - the only people outside the pharmaceutical industry who will probably ever know about this are the people at that very university,” he said.

As an example, he cited the case of Melissas DelBello of the University of Cincinnati, whose disclosure forms show she received $100,000 from AstraZeneca in 2003 and $80,000 in 2004, and consults for seven other drug makers as well. DelBello’s studies of AstraZeneca’s Seroquel in children helped to fuel widespread pediatric use of antipsychotic meds. Although those studies were inconclusive, she’s described them as demonstrating that Seroquel is effective in some children.

Asked in a past newspaper interview how much she was paid by AstraZeneca to help market Seroquel, she had said, “Trust me, I don’t make very much.” She did not respond to requests for comment this week, the Times writes. Richard Puff, a university spokesman, said he didn’t know how much DelBello received from all eight drug makers. Asked if the institution did anything to verify its professors’ financial disclosures, he replied, “We do trust our faculty when they’re making these disclosures.”

Pharma opposes such registries, saying they would discourage doctors from receiving needed education. John Bentivoglio, a lawyer in Washington who represents drug makers, said the registries would be a burden for the companies and might be misinterpreted. “One of the concerns is that these payments are seen as bribes,” he told the Times. “That’s not the case. The vast majority are lawful payments for services.”