Healthy Skepticism Library item: 4048

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

Chetley A.
A healthy business? World health and the pharmaceutical industry
Zed Books 1990;
http://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Business-Health-Pharmaceutical-Industry/dp/0862327350/ref=sr_1_1/102-1249992-1219339?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174978013&sr=1-1

Abstract:

Companies generally spend about 20% of sales on promotion. One of the main reasons for this heavy spending is so that companies can differentiate their product from many other similar ones on the market. The code of practice from the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations contains vague generalizations that are difficult to interpret and are poorly enforced. The Medical Lobby for Appropriate Marketing demonstrated this when it submitted over two hundred complaints to the IFPMA. There are also serious problems with industry run voluntary codes in industrialized countries. The most important element in promotion is the sales representative. The information that these people give doctors is incomplete and in some cases they are told not to mention specific problems unless doctors ask about them. Competitions open to doctors are becoming another popular way of promoting products. The industry also funds clinical trials which are really designed to introduce drugs to doctors and boost prescribing. Companies sponsor continuing medical education events where information is presented with an industry bias. Companies have also started to take out ads in the mass media to encourage patients to ask their doctors for new medications. Whenever their products are criticized, either in the medical or mass media, companies have tried to intervene either to suppress publication or to bully their critics. There is good evidence for double standards in promotion between developing and developed countries.

Keywords:
*analysis/developing countries/developed countries/promotion costs and volume/International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations/IFPMA/regulation of promotion/ Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (IFPMA)/MaLAM/Medical Lobby for Appropriate Marketing/sales representatives/corporate funding/CME/continuing medical education/ reaction to critics/ print advertisements/ direct-to-consumer advertising/ DTCA/ clinical trials/ drug company sponsored research/seeding studies/EVALUATION OF PROMOTION: COMPARISON BETWEEN DEVELOPING AND DEVELOPED COUNTRIES/EVALUATION OF PROMOTION: DETAILING/EVALUATION OF PROMOTION: DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER ADVERTISING/INFLUENCE OF PROMOTION: CONFERENCE SPEAKERS/INFLUENCE OF PROMOTION: PRESCRIBING, DRUG USE/PROMOTION AND HEALTH NEEDS: PROMOTION IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES/PROMOTION AND HEALTH NEEDS: PROMOTION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES/PROMOTION DISGUISED: CLINICAL TRIALS/PROMOTION DISGUISED: DISINFORMATION AND HARASSMENT/PROMOTION DISGUISED: PRESS CONFERENCES AND PRESS COVERAGE/PROMOTION DISGUISED: SUPPORT FOR CME/PROMOTIONAL TECHNIQUES: MISCELLANEOUS/REGULATION, CODES, GUIDELINES: COMPLIANCE, SANCTIONS, STANDARDS/REGULATION, CODES, GUIDELINES: INDUSTRY SELF-REGULATION/VOLUME OF AND EXPENDITURE ON PROMOTION