Healthy Skepticism Library item: 2514

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

Edwards J.
“No Free Lunch” Gets No Free Ride
Brandweek 2005 Sep 16
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001138393

Keywords:
Goodman

Notes:

Ralph Faggotter’s Comments: ‘The Business of America is Business’- and this applies equally to the American Academy of Family Physicians which has abandoned any pretense of seeking to provide a good ethical role model for healthcare by taking on such inappropriate sponsors as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S.

Ironically, the American Academy of Family Physicians refused to permit Bob Goodman, who actually cares about the health of his fellow Americans, to put up a stall at their annual Scientific Assembly!

Below is a pro forma letter written by the AAFP to doctors who question why No Free Lunch was rejected.

Dear Dr. __________

Thank you for contacting the Academy about your concern regarding No Free Lunch’s eligibility to exhibit at the AAFP 2005 Scientific Assembly exposition. Please know that we welcome and encourage member feedback.

After careful consideration of their application and our exhibitor eligibility criteria, we have determined that No Free Lunch’s mission is not in keeping with the character and purpose of the Scientific Assembly exposition.

The exposition provides a venue for our members to investigate and learn about various products and solutions to many practice challenges, which they can then consider using in their practices and in the care of their patients. This involves interaction with a variety of the exhibitors and their representatives.

In our communications with No Free Lunch, their director stated that “…accepting information and gifts from sales representatives may lead to the prescribing of expensive, inappropriate medications. …We aim to eliminate this practice.” While we respect the mission of No Free Lunch, their desire to eliminate information sharing by exhibitors with our members clearly negates the purpose of the exposition. Therefore, No Free Lunch is not in keeping with the character and purpose of the Scientific Assembly exposition and it would not be appropriate for the AAFP to accept their exhibit application.

We do not, however, limit exhibit space to strictly pharmaceutical or medical device companies. We welcome applications from companies or organizations that educate physicians about healthy lifestyle choices and products, and/or present peer-reviewed journal articles and medical research.

Thanks again for taking the time to let us know of your concerns on this matter. And thanks for your past and continuing membership in the AAFP.

Sincerely,

Doug Henley, M.D.
Executive Vice President

Full text:

“No Free Lunch” Gets No Free Ride
September 16, 2005

NEW YORK — A doctor’s group critical of drug companies is protesting its exclusion from the American Academy of Family Physicians’ (AAFP) annual Scientific Assembly-a major event for pharma marketers.

The group, No Free Lunch, claims it has been denied permission to have an exhibit at the Sept. 28 trade show in San Francisco, even though Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. (and dozens of drug companies) all have booths, the group said.

No Free Lunch encourages doctors not to accept gifts from the drug industry. The group wants doctors “to practice medicine on the basis of scientific evidence rather than on the basis of pharmaceutical promotion.”

The AAFP’s advertising prospectus promises a truly massive marketing event: 5,000 of the top-prescribing physicians in the country are expected to attend the San Francisco shindig.

A full page in the conference magazine costs $23,300; more if you want it in color. Doctor’s gift bags will be given out each day-any company that wants to place a freebie in them must pay $7,500 “per piece per day.”

If a marketer wants to buy doctors breakfast every day and give them gifts as they eat, that opportunity is on sale for $81,500, according to the prospectus.

“And, of course, there’s free lunch: $60,500 pays for the food vouchers that physician-attendees will use for lunch each day at the conference,” noted Dr. Bob Goodman, the director of No Free Lunch, in a statement.

The AAFP’s evp, Douglas Henley, responded, “While the AAFP respects the mission of No Free Lunch, their desire to eliminate information-sharing by exhibitors with our members clearly negates the purpose of the Exposition Hall. Therefore, No Free Lunch is not in keeping with the character and purpose of the Scientific Assembly Exposition Hall and it would not be appropriate for the AAFP to accept their exhibit application.”

Goodman is slowly becoming a Michael Moore-type figure within the drug marketing business because of his dual knack for publicity and protest. In April, he claims, his group was turned away from the American College of Physicians conference (also in San Francisco) after they tried to distribute copies of ACP’s own rules on accepting gifts from the drug industry.

—Jim Edwards