Flacking for Big Pharma: an article by Harriet Washington | The American Scholar

By Harriet Washington

“Drug Makers Cut Out Goodies for Doctors” and “Drugmakers Pulling Plug on Free Pens, Mugs & Pads” read headlines in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal Health Blog at the end of 2008 after, in a very public act of contrition, 38 members of the pharmaceutical industry vowed to cease bestowing on prescribing physicians goodies such as pens, mugs, and other tchotchkes branded with their names. Some physicians and ethicists had long expressed concern about the “relationship of reciprocity” that even a pizza or cheap mug can establish between doctors and drugmakers, and branded trinkets also send a message to the patient, who might reason that Gardasil must be a good drug if her doctor wields a reflex hammer inscribed with its name. But while the popular press celebrated this sudden attack of nanoconscience and while we still gravely debate whether physicians’ loyalties can really be bought for a disposable pen or a free lunch, the $310 billion pharmaceutical industry quietly buys something far more influential: the contents of medical journals and, all too often, the trajectory of medical research itself.

How can this be? Flimsy plastic pens that scream the virtues of Vioxx and articles published in the pages of The New England Journal of Medicine would seem to mark the two poles of medical influence. Scarcely any doctor admits to being influenced by the former; every doctor boasts of being guided by the latter. In fact, medical-journal articles are widely embraced as irreproachable bastions of disinterested scientific evaluation and as antidotes to the long fiscal arm of pharmaceutical-industry influence.

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How academic physicians turn into drug company shills, KevinMD.com

by Carl Elliott

These days many thought leaders find themselves on shaky ground. The past few years have not been good for business. Some of the most prominent thought leaders have been exposed and censured by Grassley. Others have seen public opinion turning against them and gone underground. As more states institute Sunshine laws, anyone considering an industry consultancy must weigh the money and status boost against the potential downside of public exposure.

Still, the thought-leader business has proved more resilient than many people predicted. Most of the thought leaders investigated by Grassley have managed to retain their academic positions, even in the face of withering criticism. A resistance movement has even formed. Led by Dr. Thomas Stossel of Harvard University, the Association of Clinical Researchers and Educators (ACRE) has defiantly opposed attempts to cut back industry payments to doctors.

Many former thought leaders simply confess disillusionment. “There is a feeling that you want to be where the action is, and even if it’s not real action, at least industry gives you the feeling that things are happening,” Healy says. “They give you the feeling that you’re up on the wave.” After a while, however, the thrill of consulting begins to wear thin. There are just too many airports, too many hotels, too many fancy dinners. Eventually they all look the same. Healy says, “You’ve got a choice between the boredoms of perpetually surfing—where the first two waves are fun, but eight hours later, Jesus Christ—or do you return to the tedium of the beach?”

via kevinmd.com

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