Healthy Skepticism Library item: 2022
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: news
Pollard R.
Doctors urged to refuse free samples
Sydney Morning Herald 2005 Aug 11
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/doctors-urged-to-refuse-free-samples/2005/08/10/1123353388380.html
Keywords:
physicians sponsorship ethics RACP
Notes:
Ralph Faggotter’s Comments: Congratulations to the RACP ( Royal Australian College of Physicians), for proposing an excellent Code of Conduct for its members in regard to their relationships with the pharmaceutical industry. Hopefully other Medical Colleges in Australia and elsewhere will now see fit to follow suit.
The AMA (Australian Medical Association) is lagging behind as usual.
Full text:
Doctors urged to refuse free samples
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/doctors-urged-to-refuse-free-samples/2005/08/10/1123353388380.html
By Ruth Pollard Health Reporter
August 11, 2005
A doctors’ college is urging its members to refuse free drug samples and
all gifts from pharmaceutical companies as part of a revamp of its code
of ethics.
With evidence indicating the pharmaceutical industry spends $1 million
every day trying to influence prescribing habits, the Australasian
College of Physicians says its new draft code aims to help doctors avoid
conflicts of interest.
Other suggestions propose that doctors reject industry sponsorship to
attend conferences unless they are speaking at the conference, and keep
relationships with companies that supply medical devices at arm’s length.
The draft code recognised that patients were more aware than ever of the
potential influence of pharmaceutical companies on their doctors’
practices, said Shane Carney, a member of the college’s ethics working
party and chairman of its therapeutics advisory committee.
Banning free drug samples would be a good first step toward eliminating
drug companies’ influences on doctor’s prescribing habits, he said.
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“A lot of samples are used as a marketing exercise … you use the sample
and the patient is on the medication,” he said. “It is very important
for junior doctors – our registrars and trainees who are in the
hospitals and have more dealings with the industry … to have some
guidelines.”
The Australian Medical Association also has a code of ethics but it
deliberately steers clear of the issue of gifts from drug firms.
The chairwoman of its ethics and medico-legal committee, Rosanna
Capolingua, said it was unnecessary for a code of ethics to focus on
drug company gifts such as pens and notepads, which she described as
“trivial things that … don’t really make a difference to prescribing
habits”.
The physician’s code also avoided issues affecting doctors and patients,
such as drug companies having access to anonymous patient data from
doctors’ computers or pop-up drug advertising, she said.
“The patients trust us and it is our duty, really, to provide them with
care and protection, not facilitate commercial marketing for
pharmaceutical companies.”
Dr Capolingua said the free drug samples provided by pharmaceutical
companies were useful for initiating treatment and did not unduly
influence prescribing habits.
But she said the physicians’ code was an important reminder that the
drug industry both provides for, and uses, doctors. “It is the doctor’s
writing of the script that turns the dollars over for pharmaceutical
companies, and we must always remember that.”
Associate Professor Carney acknowledged some of his colleagues would be
uncomfortable with the guidelines. “They will say it doesn’t influence
their prescribing patterns, but there is research that suggests they do
have an impact on their behaviour.”
THE PROPOSED CODE
. Physicians should avoid endorsing products.
. All gifts should be rejected.
. Sponsorship to attend conferences when not speaking should be refused.
. Acceptance of drug samples from drug representatives inappropriate.
