The proposed Prescription Drug Ethics Act is billed as a consumer measure, but critics say it is so stringent it could doom Colorado's blossoming bioscience industry.

The act, scheduled for its first hearing in the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee at 1:30 p.m. today, would ban wholesale drug or medical-device distributors from giving gifts to health care professionals. The list of gifts includes everything from vacations to coffee mugs, though drug samples are exempted.

It also would require manufacturers and distributors that participate in state health programs to report their advertising and marketing expenses, and would bar them from obtaining patients' prescription data to use for marketing purposes.

Several states have passed facets of Senate Bill 166, but none has combined them into one measure - a package that some call the most restrictive pharmaceutical reform bill in the country. Also, no state has demanded the disclosure of advertising budgets, which opponents say is tantamount to giving away trade secrets.

The goal of the legislation by Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, is twofold, supporters say: to increase patient safety and to reduce health care costs.

Because drug companies' advertising campaigns to doctors focus on new products, they can rush something to market whose side effects are not fully known, said Dr. Lynn Parry, Colorado Prescription Coalition chairwoman. That's what happened with Vioxx, an anti-inflammatory drug that was blamed for some 55,000 deaths before it was pulled off the market, she said.

In addition, drug companies inevitably market products with the highest profit margin to doctors, regardless of whether they are the best suited for patient needs, Carroll said.

"The wrong things are being pushed by the wrong people for the wrong reasons," Carroll said. "There's no transparency, and it's just jacking up our costs."

But opponents say the bill goes way too far.

The number of research, testing and medical laboratory facilities in Colorado increased 58 percent between 2001 and 2006, leading state officials to call bioscience one of the state's most promising new industries.

If the ethics act becomes law, it could cause some drug manufacturers to leave Colorado, according to a memo circulating among opponents. Less competition will drive up consumer prices, it says.

Opponents point to a recent report in the journal Health Affairs that shows spending on prescription drugs fell last year to its lowest growth rate in more than three decades. Further declines could limit investment in research and development, which could slow the pace of medical innovation, it said.

Drug manufacturers say they help doctors help patients.

"Doctors rely on accurate and appropriate information about new medicines in order to provide the best possible care to their patients," said David Norton, chairman of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America board, in a statement last year.