BusinessWeek reports:
Last April the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics put an embarrassing spotlight on the problem of aggressive drug marketing. To gain access to companies, hospitals, and doctors, the authors agreed to withhold the names of individuals in their case studies. Still, the detailed examples stoked concerns about aggressive marketing:
• Drug company representatives sometimes provide doctors and pharmacists with gifts ranging from jewelry and consumer electronics goods to automobiles.
• Pharma companies especially target influential doctors at teaching hospitals, paying for them and their spouses to travel to international conferences.
• Some drug companies have printed out "rate cards" for doctors they deal with in small towns and cities: prescribing 1,000 tablets per month of a particular medication gets the doctor a cell phone; 5,000 tabs confers an air-conditioner; 10,000 tabs is worth a motorcycle.
More
Last April the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics put an embarrassing spotlight on the problem of aggressive drug marketing. To gain access to companies, hospitals, and doctors, the authors agreed to withhold the names of individuals in their case studies. Still, the detailed examples stoked concerns about aggressive marketing:
• Drug company representatives sometimes provide doctors and pharmacists with gifts ranging from jewelry and consumer electronics goods to automobiles.
• Pharma companies especially target influential doctors at teaching hospitals, paying for them and their spouses to travel to international conferences.
• Some drug companies have printed out "rate cards" for doctors they deal with in small towns and cities: prescribing 1,000 tablets per month of a particular medication gets the doctor a cell phone; 5,000 tabs confers an air-conditioner; 10,000 tabs is worth a motorcycle.
More
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