Healthy Skepticism Library item: 610
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: Journal Article
Lewis S.
Selling guidelines door to door.
CMAJ 1996; 154:756
http://www.cma.ca/cmaj/vol-154/0755e.htm
Keywords:
*letter to the editor
Canada
regulation of promotion
promotion costs and volume
EDUCATING ABOUT PROMOTION: HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
REGULATION, CODES, GUIDELINES: AUTONOMOUS BODIES
REGULATION, CODES, GUIDELINES: INDUSTRY SELF-REGULATION
Notes:
Pharmaceutical companies spend $2 billion annually on promotion. It may be rational and even wise to spend huge sums counterdetailing but this would be very costly. There are a number of other approaches: 1) doctors could refuse to see detailers and instil critical appraisal skills in future practitioners but this would still leave thousands of doctors and the public vulnerable to sales pitches; 2) pharmaceutical advertising could be banned; 3) a high quality committee could vet all drug promotion; and 4) the industry could self-regulate.
