An excellent roundup of all the issues involved in the pharma-physician and DTC-consumer-physician relationships is this article in the Salt Lake City Weekly. I particularly like this quote from a doc who just says no to all forms of pharma marketing:
Sporting her “No Free Lunch” badge, Bonomo often gets looked at like she‘s a crazy person. She sometimes feels like a lone prophet in the wilderness decrying
the false God raining doughnuts and drug samples from the sky.
Often, she‘ll walk in on a group of doctors surrounding a pizza dropped off by a drug rep and chide them, “You‘re selling your soul to the devil. You guys are eating the drug food again."
The article kind of mixes apples and oranges at times, but I can see how the reporter found this ironic:
The American College of Physicians also has a new ethics manual strongly
discouraging doctors from accepting “gifts, hospitality, trips and subsidies of all types.” But that didn‘t stop the ACP from financing its annual meeting, in April, largely through the drug industry. Drug companies were inspired to fork over money to sponsor $60,000 in tote bags after ACP‘s promise that the annual
meeting “offers an unparalleled opportunity to meet with physicians of power--prescribing power.” No Free Lunch asked to exhibit but was turned down.
