Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1216

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

Fisher MA.
Physicians and the pharmaceutical industry: a dysfunctional relationship.
Perspect Biol Med 2003 Spr; 46:(2):254-72
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12721524

Abstract:

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the largest and most profitable industries in the world, and in the United States, the industry has a particularly privileged economic position. Yet the cost of drugs in the United States is higher than anywhere else, due largely to the fact that the industry is focusing increasingly on marketing rather than on the development of meaningful new medications: available evidence does not support claims of great expense for the development of new drugs. Because of its vast resources, the pharmaceutical industry has assumed an increasing influence in medicine, which, given the differences in values and priorities between medicine and the drug companies, is a cause for concern. The pharmaceutical industry has acted to maximize its profits in ways that frequently conflict with medicine’s need for truth and full disclosure. Indeed, the industry has arguably worked to compromise physicians’ judgments, as well as academic standards. As a result, despite government regulation there have been unnecessary adverse effects from drugs. The experience with butorphanol (Stadol) exemplifies problems in the current system and the harm that can result. Changes are suggested to make the pharmaceutical industry more responsive to the needs of patients and physicians.

Keywords:
Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems Analgesics, Opioid/adverse effects Analgesics, Opioid/economics Butorphanol/adverse effects Butorphanol/economics Drug Industry/economics Drug Industry/ethics* Humans Interprofessional Relations/ethics* Physicians/ethics* Social Control, Formal Substance-Related Disorders/prevention & control United States United States Food and Drug Administration/legislation & jurisprudence