Roche - Herceptin hype

Lisa Jardine was at home recovering from chemotherapy one evening last May when the phone rang. She was not feeling all that well; the conversation that followed made her feel worse. There was only one breast cancer story around last May, as is still true today: Herceptin. It was a wonder drug - it halved some women's chances of having a recurrence of their cancer.

But women who would die without it were being denied access, apparently for financial reasons - or so the story went. Women with aggressive, early-stage breast cancers had taken to the streets and the courts for their right to get it. So when - a week before the phone call - Jardine, who had had breast cancer, was asked in a newspaper interview what she thought about Herceptin, she responded that although she was confident she was receiving the best of care, "if Herceptin really is as effective as we are being told, I do feel I ought to be given the choice".

Then came the phone call. "Halfway through the following week, the phone goes at home," says Jardine, professor of Renaissance studies at Queen Mary, University of London, writer and well-known television presenter. "It's a really nice woman. She says to me, 'I read about you in the paper and I gather you'd like access to Herceptin and you can't get it.'"

By now, however, Jardine had decided that she did not want the drug. "I said, 'No - that's not the case with me. I have decided not to have Herceptin.'

"She said, 'Even if you don't want it yourself, would you come and talk to some of our seminars because we're running a big campaign to promote Herceptin? Either we could find funding for Herceptin or, if you really don't want it or decide against it, there would be fees for appearances.'
"I said, 'Could you tell me where you are from?' She said, 'We work for Roche.'

"I wasn't feeling well. I said, 'Would you please get off the phone?' Then I hung up.

"There was no mistaking the directness of the approach - she said she would make it worth my while."

Jardine was shocked that a drug company, or a PR agency working for one, might attempt to use her as part of its marketing strategy. But the fact is that this sort of approach is exactly what pharmaceutical marketing is all about in an era when the stakes for drug companies seeking to make profits are climbing steadily higher.

UK Guardian :read more.

Insiders' comment: Prof. Jardine shouldn't have been so shocked. As professor of Renaissance studies she should be aware of the works of a certain Niccolo Machiavelli!