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Tue 13 Apr, 2004 06:18 am
You see them in your doctor's office- Mouse pads with the logo of a medication, free samples, other medical accoutrements sporting the name of some medication. But have the pharmacetical companies gone too far?
Federal prosecutors are taking one company to trial, claiming that the freebees offered to docs amounted to kickbacks to entice the medicos to prescribe one drug over another.......hopefully theirs. These "kickbacks", the prosecutors claim, involve everything from dinners, trips and other outings, and tend to influence the name of the prescription that the doctor will write for his patients.
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Quote:BOSTON - For years, they've been the standard freebies that drug companies have offered in an attempt to get doctors to prescribe their medications: expensive dinners, golf outings, trips to ski resorts and drug samples.
But federal prosecutors claim the gift-giving has gone too far.
This week, 11 current and former sales executives from TAP Pharmaceutical Products ?- a leading drug company ?- go on trial, accused of conspiring to pay kickbacks to doctors, hospitals and other customers.
The charges focus on efforts to get doctors to prescribe Lupron, the company's prostate cancer drug, as well as Prevacid, its heartburn drug.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Tuesday, and the case is being closely watched by the drug industry and the medical profession. Critics say the gift-giving drives up the already high cost of prescription drugs and erodes public confidence in doctors.
"Despite the fact that most doctors will deny that they are influenced, in fact, they are," said Dr. Robert Goodman, an internist from New York who started a movement five years ago to eliminate pharmaceutical company influence. His Web site, nofreelunch.org, urges doctors to reject all freebies, even something as inexpensive as a pen.
Doctors approached by the 11 TAP employees were offered gifts including trips to swanky golf and ski resorts, and "educational grants" used to pay for cocktail parties, office Christmas parties and travel, according to prosecutors.
Defense lawyers say the sales executives were simply doing their jobs.
What do YOU think? Have the drug companies gone to far in their zeal to hawk their products?
What a surprise - not.
The drug companies give doctors astounding amounts of stuff - bloody incredible.
Not sure, to be fair, if it can be said to influence them, since they ALL do it!!!
I learned more than thirty years ago that drug reps and sales reps for medical equipment companies have been giving kick-backs in a form which doesn't show. In a clinic or a hospital outpatient center, one of the large drug companies or medical supply houses will "rent an office." A broom closet has a sign put on the door, and it is then locked, and left that way. In 1973, when i first learned of it, one of these companies was paying the ********** Clinic (name withheld to protect the guily)--which was an incorporation of independent practicioners-- were paid $600.00 per month for such an "office." To put that in perspective, in early 1973, i paid $90.00/month for my one bedroom apartment, and at $3.65/hour, was considered well paid. The rampant corruption, the arrogance of doctors and nurses, and the fleecing of the ill, the injured, and those who had just lost family members sickened me to the point at which, in 1976, i gave up working in the medical field forever. This is just the tip of a very big iceberg.
Setanta- Wow! I couldn't figure that one out, until I realized that you had meant to type "broom" closet!
If it is ok for our elected officials why not Drs. It seems to be the American way of doing business.
au1929 wrote:If it is ok for our elected officials why not Drs. It seems to be the American way of doing business.
Not just American, though all the money must be going into the pockets of doctors and administrators, because it certainly doesn't go into health services.
In defense of my internist. He when he prescribes a short term medication, in particular an anti biotic, he will always give you the samples if he has them.
Our family doctor (an internist, just retired) always tried to give us his samples.
I've never had a doctor offer a sample, but we've still got the PBS to keep medicines affordable. Something the Americans tried to get us to give up during the recent free trade negotiations!
every doctor i've ever gone to gave me a sample and then told me to get the prescription if the drug seems effective. if not, i should come back and try something else.
but i agree sometimes, these gifts go too far.
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