Healthy Skepticism Library item: 5793
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
Please Hold the Free Lunches
New York Times 2006 Aug 4
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/opinion/04fri2.html
Notes:
Ralph Faggotter’s Comments:
“ The doctors always insist that they can’t be bought. But a former sales representative for two drug companies said the lunches were “incredibly effective” in lifting the number of prescriptions from practices that got the free food…”
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) should take this information on board before engaging in ridiculous knee-jerk responses defending the indefensible.
Full text:
Doctors are deluding themselves when they say their medical judgment can’t be influenced by something as trivial as a deli sandwich. When the sandwiches are delivered en masse for the entire medical staff, courtesy of drug companies that are touting their wares while the doctors eat, the physicians are swallowing a lot more than ham-and-cheese on rye. Otherwise, the drug companies would not be offering their lunchtime spreads.
The insidious nature of these “free lunches” was laid bare by Stephanie Saul in The Times last Friday. At a four-story medical building in New Hyde Park on Long Island, steaming containers of Chinese food and trays of gourmet sandwiches were delivered to receptive medical practices, courtesy of various drug companies. Sometimes morning pastries and coffee were on the menu as well.
All the solicitous drug companies wanted was a little of the harried doctors’ time to plug their products. Thus Merck was happy to pay $258 to provide Chinese food to the 20 or more doctors and employees of a pulmonary practice so that its sales representatives could tout the virtues of an osteoporosis drug and an asthma treatment in a relaxed setting. Nationwide, such lunches are believed to cost the pharmaceutical industry hundreds of millions of dollars a year, a marketing cost the companies are happy to absorb in hopes of bolstering sales of high-priced prescription drugs.
The doctors always insist that they can’t be bought. But a former sales representative for two drug companies said the lunches were “incredibly effective” in lifting the number of prescriptions from practices that got the free food, and a medical school doctor who is examining the issue believes the lunches do influence prescribing. Some doctors seem to rely on free lunches as a fringe benefit for their staffs.
The medical profession has made some strides in recent years in cleansing itself of drug industry influences, and the industry’s latest code bans such free enticements as lavish dinners, golf outings and prime seats at athletic contests. That has made the lunches all the more important. A few hospitals, medical practices and university health systems have wisely banned the free lunches. Surely it is time for the entire medical profession to go cold turkey and decline these favor-seeking handouts.
