Once squandered, can the drug industry regain public trust? Posted by schnro at 02/05/06 01:00 AM

Drug companies hiding data from the public, wining and dining doctors, and regulators unable or unwilling to protect the public. Sam Rayburn said, "Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one." The question for the drug industry is whether they have permanently destroyed or merely damaged public trust. The signs don't look good for them.

The news in the past couple of weeks may signal a fork in the road for health care professionals. In one direction, last week's Journal of the American Medical Association article that called for elimination of most free swag from the prescription drug industry. The other, a story about growing dissatisfaction with conventional medicine with many people turning to alternative therapies, regardless of whether they are safe and effective. NY Times Feb. 3, 2006

The article cited:

Haggles with insurance providers, conflicting findings from medical studies and news reports of drug makers' covering up product side effects all feed their disaffection, to the point where many people begin to question not only the health care system but also the science behind it. Soon, intuition and the personal experience of friends and family may seem as trustworthy as advice from a doctor in diagnosing an illness or judging a treatment.

Granted, it would be overstating their role to put the entire blame on the drug companies for a growing lack of confidence in what one person called the "medical industrial complex." One person interviewed for the story says her distrust:

stems in part from suspicions that insurers warp medical decision making, and in part from the belief that drug companies are out to sell as many drugs as possible, regardless of patients' needs, interviews show.

"I do partly blame the drug companies and the money they make" for the breakdown in trust in the medical system, said Joyce Newman, 74, of Lynnwood Wash., who sees a natural medicine specialist as her primary doctor.

Most people continue to have confidence in Western medicine. But the revelations about drug company secrecy and their ongoing marketing practices have kicked public trust. We have yet to see if the damage is permanent.

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