Do We Wear The Black Hat? | Pharma Marketer

y Bob Ehrlich, CEO, DTC Perspectives, Inc.

Every year at the DTC National Conference we invite a speaker who is a critic of the drug industry. Marketing people need to hear straight talk from our most vocal opponents because we often dismiss what critics say as lies or half truths motivated by a lack of understanding or ideology. Critics provide perspective, and can open up our mind a bit. No one wants to hear such criticism but hearing it makes us better understand that critics may sometimes have some fair points.

Most of the time we get politicians on the left who want to institute price controls, drug re-importation, single payer health plans, or restrict or ban DTC ads. We have had Joe Kennedy (twice), Ralph Nader (twice), Henry Waxman, Howard Dean, David Kessler and several others. They always get low speaker ratings but pack the house because we all want to hear what they have to say even if it is predictable. Somehow getting mentally attacked seems invigorating. At least we get good cocktail party discussions going.

Last week we had someone who refused any customary speaker fees, and that made me wonder whether we were dealing with a true believer in the evil of drug companies. Carl Elliott is an ethics professor who recently wrote a book on the seamy side of drug research called White Coat Black Hat. Dr. Elliott had everyone in stunned silence as he told stories of unscrupulous doctors who did clinical studies for drug companies. Few of us would ever sign up for those Phase 1 studies which measure human safety and dosing. In fact, as Dr. Elliott describes, those that do participate are very poor, or college students, or the homeless and mostly uninsured. They make some decent money ingesting pills that no human has ever swallowed before, and they take some wildly speculative doses to establish safe limits.

Needless to say that system encourages some doctors to do some unsavory things to get subjects. Drug companies pay them well to conduct these expensive studies. Sometimes or quite often says Dr. Elliott they push naive subjects into trials. Many of these trials are conducted off shore where people are more desperate for money. In Dr. Elliott’s expose, this is a big problem ethically.

I hope the drug company researchers read his book and investigate whether there is truth to the criticisms. I was and would still be proud to be a marketer of prescription drugs. Frankly though I never thought much about the clinical studies and those brave souls who were willing to test them. As a marketer we are encouraging people to ask their doctor for that advertised drug. That drug was tested on thousands of people and we all must hope and expect those studies were done ethically. Dr. Elliott was one of the first anti-industry DTC National speakers to say something really new and highly provocative. For that I am thankful because real people are risking their health to test our drugs and we owe them a fair deal.

As consumer marketers we are the last line of communication to those consumers whose trust we desperately need. If Dr. Elliott is correct or even partially correct then some corporate soul searching is in order.

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Do We Wear The Black Hat?

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