Healthy Skepticism Library item: 19431

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

Mitka M
New 'Law' Attempts to Explain Strategies Drug Marketers Use to Sway Prescribing
JAMA 2011; 305:(11):
http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/305/11/1083.extract

Abstract:

Two researchers are proposing a “pharmaceutical inverse benefit law,” a heuristic device to help physicians understand how pharmaceutical marketing affects their decision-making process when prescribing medications.

The authors’ proposed law came about following recent highly publicized withdrawals of certain drugs from the market due to safety concerns. The law states that the benefit-to-harm ratio of drugs tends to vary inversely with how aggressively the drugs are marketed (Brody H and Light DW. Am J Public Health. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2010.199844 [published online ahead of print January 13, 2011]). The law was inspired by Hart’s inverse care law, itself inspired by the inverse square law of physics.

While drug marketing attempts to influence decision making, physicians should independently weigh the risks and benefits of prescribing medications to their patients.

Howard Brody, MD, PhD, of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, said he and coauthor Donald W. Light, PhD, of the …

Keywords:
conflict of interest, decision making, drug industry, marketing, patient safety, prescriptions, drug.