For as long as many can remember, New Jersey has been home to much of the world’s pharmaceutical industry. And for that reason, drugmakers have often been handled with kid gloves - when other states launched investigations into questionable marketing, for example, the Garden State usually wasn’t on the list of participants.

So it came as a surprise last week when the state’s new Attorney General, Anne Milgram, announced a new task force to study recommendations for handling conflicts of interest between docs and drug and device makers. The target: The ubiquitous practice of giving gifts and fees for research, consulting and speaking. This is a national issue, but so far, only four states - Vermont, Maine, Minnesota and West Virginia - have passed laws requiring docs to report payments and goodies. In a chat today with Pharmalot, Milgram, 36, says she can foresee adding New Jersey to that list.

Pharmalot: What prompted you to form such a task force?
Milgram: I’d read a series of articles in newspapers and magazines over the past six months to a year about doctors and conflicts of interest…And I decided this is something a place like New Jersey has to be looking at…Until then, I was vaguely familiar with the issue. But I stepped back and looked at what the state Board of Medical Examiners was doing (as of this summer, asking docs whether they’ve received gifts). And what we found is that before the board took that step, there was really nothing being done - no checks, no oversight.

Pharmalot: The industry is a big presence in this state and New Jersey has had a reputation for not treating it aggressively. It’s a big economic engine thanks to jobs and taxes. To what extent are you concerned about the reaction?
Milgram: There are no sacred cows. The job of the Attorney General is to figure out, to prioritize the needs of the public and the state. There really is a fair amount of concern about what kind of care consumers are getting. So I look at this as a consumer issue….Regardless of which companies are in the state of New Jersey, we have millions of people who live here…I wouldn’t say I was aware of (the reputation).

Pharmalot: You mentioned what other states are doing. Is New Jersey involved, in any way, in the multi-state investigation into the marketing of antipsychotic drugs?
Milgram: We’ve started the conversation (with her own staff), but I’ll have to get back to you on that. I can’t give you specifics.

Pharmalot: What kind of recommendations do you hope and expect the task force to recommend?
Milgram: I wanted to put people in a room who know a lot about it. What I really want is for those folks to come up with recommendations. Some will be long-term and some will be short-term…It’s important to me to let the task force play out. It’s possible it will recommend legislation. There are a lot of recommendations they can come back with, but there are no limits on what those recommendations can be. I said they should look at other states where there are laws.

Pharmalot: How soon are those recommendations supposed to be made? And would you like to anything specific, such as legislation?
Milgram: Six months. And it’s a little too early to say…I look at my job as figuring out what issues are out there and how do we look at it from there.