No more free lunches Posted
by Liz at 01/29/07 06:19 PM
The group, PharmedOut, promotes evidence-based medicine by providing news, resources, and links to pharma-free CME courses.
For doctors, the continuing education credits required by most states to renew a medical license are a way to bone up on the latest clinical developments while chowing down at some of the country's finest restaurants. For drug companies, which provide much of the more than $1.7 billion spent annually on these dinner meetings and conferences, they are an opportunity to help educate physicians who must remain up-to-date in a rapidly changing field.
But some doctors have complained that industry sponsorship of medical education creates an inherent conflict of interest for physicians at the expense of patients who risk being prescribed drugs they may not need or cannot afford.
Interest in the overt and covert ways drug companies influence doctors has mushroomed in the past few years, experts say, fueled in part by concerns about the safety of prescription drugs, exemplified by the now-withdrawn blockbuster pain medication Vioxx, coupled with the skyrocketing cost of pharmaceuticals. Much of the attention has focused on the influence of salespeople who frequent doctors' offices touting new medicines, dropping off free samples and buying lunch for the staff.
More recently there has been debate about drug companies' influence on the outcome of scientific studies it finances, and on medical education, including residency training programs.
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Posted by Don Hull at 02/01/07 01:56 PM
I share your abhorrence at the plethora of drug ads, especially when the gov't prosecutes people for using certain drugs it doesn't like. Marijuana has never killed anybody in the history of the world, but mj LAWS have killed thousands as gov't's drug war violates civil rights and the Constitution.
What we really need is MORE FREEDOM, not more regulation or more government.
I believe the CU does a valuable service by reporting on products and services with comparisons and ratings. But you also keep promoting MORE GOVERNMENTand MORE INTERFERENCE in the marketplace, which is SOCIALISM/FASCISM.
Fer gosh sakes, people, the REASON you have so many products to review is because of CAPITALISM and the somewhat FREE market. Government oversight is a waste of time and money and freedoms because the gov't has its OWN AGENDA, and that agenda does NOT include "protecting" the people. It protects ITSELF.
Your constant urging to your readers to surrender more of their decisionmaking to the state, is actually insulting to your readers. We have our own opinions and interests and don't need the gov't to "crack down" on ANYTHING.
Look at the Oldsmobile and Plymouth cars, two famous and old brands that are no longer being made. They had the sanction of the gov't, passed all the EPA safety and emissions tests, yet they DIDN'T SATISFY THE TOUGHEST REGULATOR OF ALL——THE CUSTOMER. The customer, who spends his own money, is supremely more discerning than a gov't bureaucrat who is following orders.
I would like to see the CU wake up and learn some Austrian Economics, learn how the marketplace REALLY works, you'll understand that we don't need any of the regulatory state. The auto business in America got started in 1896. It ran pretty successfully for over 50 years. In the 1960s, LBJ's Great Society Socialism implemented a host of new regulations, and by the 80's, the auto industry was dying in America. In 1940, there were 16 car makers in the U.S., today there is 2, the Big 3 is no longer, and one of the original Big 3 is owned by the GERMANS, who we allegedly defeated in WW II. The death of the US auto industry is due to our own gov't intereference and regulation.
Don Hull
Costa Mesa, CA
