BY JIM HALL

Edgar Gonzalez is director of the pharmacy at Mary Washington Hospital and secretary of its drug-purchasing committee.

Yet, Gonzalez is also a spokesman for national drug companies, earning thousands of dollars a year to talk about new drugs.

Officials at the Fred-ericksburg hospital are aware of his apparent conflict of interests and have no problem with it. He's not a drug salesman, they say, and patients benefit from his knowledge.

"We knew when we hired him that he was doing clinical research and professional speaking," said Kathleen Allenbaugh, hospital spokeswoman. "We want him to continue with that."

The Virginia Board of Pharmacy does not prohibit hospital pharmacists from also working for drug companies.

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, a trade group, recommends that its members disclose their relationships with drug companies but does not recommend against their moonlighting.

In short, it's common for medical professionals to work for drug companies as consultants or paid presenters, or to take grant money and honoraria.

Supporters of the practice say it's vital for the pharmaceutical industry to have access to experts such as Gonzalez and to use them to educate others.

"If companies are going to improve their drugs, they need the knowledge of these people," said Dr. David Sarrett, associate vice president for health sciences at the VCU Health System in Richmond.

But critics say the practice translates into higher drug costs, damages the public's trust, and can result in patients getting newer, more expensive drugs when older, cheaper ones would do just as well.

Doctors who serve on drug company speakers bureaus are little more than "paid marketers or spokespersons," according to Dr. Troyen Brennan, the author of proposed guidelines for faculty members at the nation's teaching hospitals.

And faculty members who have financial relationships with drug companies should not serve on drug-purchasing committees, Brennan said in his 2006 guidelines published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"Everybody is concerned about patients being given products that maybe aren't the best thing for them, with decisions being influenced by some question of financial gain," said Susan Chimonas, associate research scholar at the Center on Medicine as a Profession at Columbia University.

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