25 January 2005 16:11

Jeffrey Peter Joseph Utz, M.D. <jeffutz@juno.com>

Re: [healthfraud] Marcia Angell
Here's how drug companies influrence students, residents and attending physicians:

[Quote]Although they call it education, the billions of dollars they put into it comes out of their marketing budgets. The industry also provides students, house officers and physicians in practice with meals, trips to exotic locations and many other blandishments. Although medical and industry associations have issued guidelines that would limit these gifts, codes of conduct are entirely voluntary and full of loopholes.

Although it is self-evidently absurd for medical professionals to look to an investor-owned company for an impartial, critical evaluation of its own products, there is ample evidence that marketing masquerading as education does increase the use of a drug; indeed, if it did not, heads would roll in executive suites, since these companies are not charities. And so why does the profession pretend to believe that drug companies, in contrast with all other businesses, can provide objective information about their own products? Unfortunately, the answer is because it pays - in CME credits, perks and free lunches. But ask yourselves, fellow physicians, why drug companies should be giving you any gifts at all, especially since they just tack the costs on to the price of drugs. The profession should pay for its own education, just as other professions do.[/Quote]

I have to agree with Dr. Angell. Drug companies don't provide ubiased info on their drugs. It has been shown that drug companies suppress negative information (they don't publish reports when their drugs don't work), journals have a conflict of interest with journals because the journals publish drug company research, but also publish their ads and make a ton of money selling reprints to the drug companies. And drug companies don't sponsor lunches and conferences because they are trying to make sure that doctors are up-to-date on the latest research. And they don't give samples to docs out of the goodness of their hearts. The sponsor conferences and give samples to market their drugs. IMS America does a great job of tracking the prescribing habits of doctors. And, studies show that the usage of drugs from sponsoring companies goes up when they do thier marketing activities.

Whether or not this supports the conspiracy theory, I beleive that Dr. Angell is correct: Doctors let drug companies have too much influence on them.

Jeff

-- Twyla <eostory@shaw.ca> wrote:Why did the CMAJ publish this?

[quote]The medical profession has largely abdicated its responsibility to
educate medical students and doctors in the use of prescription drugs. Drug
companies now support most continuing medical education, medical conferences
and meetings of professional associations.[/quote]

And how do the drug companies support education?  This same old conspiracy
that doctors are under the complete control of drug companies...

Twy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nancy Ortiz, R.D." <nrord@adelphia.net>
To: "Health Fraud" <healthfraud@lists.quackwatch.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2005 9:10 AM
Subject: [healthfraud] Marcia Angell


http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/171/12/1451
From the Canadian Medical Association Journal


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