Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13828

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

Buckwell C.
Should the drug industry work with key opinion leaders? Yes
BMJ 2008 Jun 21; 336:(7658):1404
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/336/7658/1404

Abstract:

Industry commonly works with experts to put across its message. Charlie Buckwell believes that such interaction is essential for medical advancement, but Giovanni Fava (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39541.731493.59) argues that it risks scientific integrity

This question is a microcosm of the broader debate about how the drug industry and clinicians should interact. It leads to two tempting but indefensible end points-either that doctors are immune to marketing and should be free to do as they wish with industry or that industry is inherently corrupting, making all contact with it unethical.1

Both positions are flawed, and the reality is much more complex…