Healthy Skepticism Library item: 2409
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
Mokhiber R, Weissman R.
Dr. Matt is Agitated
Corp-Focus 2005 Aug 23
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2005/000210.html
Notes:
Ralph Faggotter’s Comments: Mokhiber and Weissman take our bland prose themes and turn them into poetry ( well sort of).
Who ate all the Belgian Mini Cream Puffs anyway?
Full text:
Dr. Matt is Agitated
By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
Dr. Matt Hahn is agitated.
Steamed.
Hot under the collar.
People around him are fat.
Out of shape.
Blubbery.
And drug reps keep bringing junk food into his office.
Pizza with a ton of cheese.
Cookies.
Crap.
Dr. Matt gripes about it.
He pushes back at the drug reps.
But they keep coming.
Junk food in hand.
A wave of junk.
Delivered by an army of drug reps.
And nothing can stop them.
Dr. Matt is a family doctor at the Tri-State Community Health Center in
Hancock, Maryland.
Notice the word “health.”
Dr. Matt sits on the drug/prevention divide.
Of course, we need drugs to treat illness.
But much of our illnesses are preventable.
Eat well.
Exercise.
Keep the drugs at bay.
Eat junk.
Stay on the couch.
And drugs will follow.
So, what is it with drug reps anyway?
They don’t bring grapes and apples as they travel the country.
They bring donuts and pizza.
Could it be that they are seeking to induce illness so that they may
sell more drugs?
Or is it just that their customer pool is so saturated that grapes don’t
cut it?
Grapes don’t cut it.
Bring on the crap.
When he calls agitated, we know what it’s about.
What is it Dr. Matt?
You’re not going to believe this.
Try us.
No, sit down.
This one is special.
Go ahead.
You are just not going believe it.
Just tell us what you have.
He told us.
And we didn’t believe it.
Until he brought over the evidence.
A box of Mini Belgian Eclairs — “filled to the brim with bavarian dairy
cream and topped with chocolate — contains 50 Mini Eclairs — 241
calories per serving.”
And a box of Belgian Mini Cream Puffs — “filled to the brim with
whipped vanilla dairy cream — contains 70 Cream Puffs — 305 calories
per serving.”
The boxes were empty — the staff at Tri-State Community “Health” Center
had devoured them instantaneously.
Who brought these wonderful items in, Dr. Matt?
The drug rep from Novo Nordisk — the maker of insulin to treat diabetics.
Right there, on top of each container — “compliments of Novolog Mix70/30.”
Belgian mini eclairs brought to you by a Danish insulin company.
Now, Novo Nordisk is a leader in the field of diabetes treatment.
But they also project themselves as a company concerned about prevention.
As they say, “Novo Nordisk’s aspiration is to defeat diabetes by finding
better methods of diabetes prevention, detection and treatment.”
We sent this statement to Dr. Matt.
Dr. Matt was besides himself.
“I doubt chocolate eclairs are part of their prevention program,” Dr.
Matt said. “If they are, their program is somewhat misguided. I would
have to consider eating chocolate mini Belgian eclairs a non-
traditional type of prevention.”
“Did this company possibly find it ironic that they were handing out
foods that worsened the very condition that their medication treats?”
Dr. Matt asks. “Is there anything beyond selling more insulin?”
The pharmaceutical industry spends $5.7 billion a year on marketing
directly to physicians — that’s $6,000 to $7,000 per doctor.
Benjamin Littenberg, director of general internal medicine at the
University of Vermont, says that taking anything from drug companies
violates a trust.
“They shouldn’t be allowed to offer gifts, and we shouldn’t be allowed
to accept them, and it’s appalling it’s even an issue,” Dr. Littenberg
said recently.
Our guess is that most doctors, like Dr. Matt, don’t want the crap that
drug companies air drop on their offices.
But the drug companies keep it coming.
And if Novo Nordisk was embarrassed by their drug rep’s eclair cream
puff delivery, it wasn’t saying.
A company spokesperson, Susan Jackson, said she couldn’t comment.
Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
Reporter,
editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor,
co-authors of On the Rampage: Corporate Predators and the Destruction of
Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press).
© Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
This article is posted at:
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