Healthy Skepticism Library item: 9849

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

Khamsi R.
Are journalists more ethical than doctors?
Short Sharp Science (New Scientist blog) 2007 Apr 27
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/shortsharpscience/2007/04/are-journalists-more-ethical-than.html

Full text:

They say the best things in life are free. Apparently doctors are taking this advice a bit too literally.

“Unlikely as it sounds, doughnuts, pens, notepads and the like are effective weapons in the fight for market share among pharmaceutical giants,” Jim Giles explains this week in New Scientist.

A new study offers evidence about how the majority of doctors willingly accept freebies from drug companies – everything from a gratis sandwich for lunch to a ‘no strings attached’ ticket to the big game. The report, in the New England Journal of Medicine, says that 95% of physicians accept these gifts. Drug firms have no objections to this trend. It can only help their profits go up.

I’m just a lowly journalist – and yet I would not accept a ticket to the best show in town if it came from a drug company. Doing so would compromise my ability to objectively report on its products. So why are so many doctors – who deal with life-threatening diseases – accepting these compromising gifts?