The drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. plans to create a public database listing the names of physicians it pays for speaking engagements and consulting services, the company will announce Wednesday.

The new policy puts Lilly at the forefront of the drug industry as the firm seeks to cement its reputation as a leader in the pharmaceutical sector’s halting progress toward greater transparency.

John Lechleiter, Lilly’s president and CEO, will unveil the initiative in Indianapolis, where the company is based, on Wednesday afternoon during an address to the Economic Club of Indiana.

The company decided to advance the transparency policies on its own because policymakers and the public are demanding drug companies be more open, Lechleiter told The Hill on Tuesday.

“Right now, there’s a huge burden that this industry bears in terms of a lack of trust,” Lechleiter said. The perception that pharmaceutical companies hide their activities from public view has contributed to that mistrust, he said, which in turn influences the political debate about the drug industry.

Kohl and Grassley both praised the company for taking the lead and volunteering to be more transparent before the legislation has passed Congress.

 “It takes a lot of courage to be the first. They have made a principled decision that I believe will benefit both their business and the consumers of their products,” Kohl said in a statement.

“Disclosing information about financial relationships between industry and doctors is a good thing, and this announcement contributes to transparency,” Grassley said in a statement, emphasizing that the legislation, dubbed the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, is still needed.

“Consumers and taxpayers deserve a federal requirement that applies to all kinds of payments to physicians in every state in the nation,” he said.

The policies to be announced Wednesday mark the latest in a series of moves Lilly has taken in recent years to disclose more of its information to the public. The company was the first to create a registry of its clinical trials and to reveal its educational and charitable grants.

“We want to be on the leading edge,” Lechleiter said. “It’s very clear to all the different companies in our industry that Lilly has moved ahead.”

Drug makers’ financial relationships with physicians and their sales practices have attracted scrutiny from the Democratic Congress and state legislatures across the country, prompting the industry to reconsider its activities in these areas.

The Grassley-Kohl bill, for example, aims to curb real and perceived conflicts of interests between physicians and the drug, device and medical supply companies by requiring them to disclose their financial relationships.