The trade group that represents large drug companies came out with a new code of ethics for marketing last week.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
The trade organization, PhRMA, said the new code would prohibit member companies from distributing items like pens bearing drug names. It also bans restaurant meals provided to doctors and suggests that companies set individual caps on the amount they pay physician speakers. PhRMA's member companies unanimously endorsed the code, and firms including Eli Lilly & Co., Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline PLC issued statements supporting it.
But as The New York Times points out, the big dollar perks available to doctors are still in play:
But the code provides no definite limits on the millions of dollars spent on speaking and consulting arrangements that drug makers have forged with tens of thousands of doctors. Nor does it ban the routine provision of office breakfasts and lunches, or the occasional invitation to educational dinners at fancy restaurants.
"Informative, ethical and professional relationships between health care providers and America’s pharmaceutical research companies are instrumental to effective patient care," said Richard T. Clark, chief executive of Merck and chairman of the trade association.
Some industry critics praised the new rules.
"We've been pushing to see reforms like this for some time now," said Senator Herb Kohl, a Democrat from Wisconsin. "Consumers will undoubtedly be the beneficiaries of these industry changes." Mr. Kohl has co-sponsored a bill to require drug and medical device companies to publicly disclose payments to doctors of $500 or more.
Check with your local medical association. What does all of this mean to the average doctor working in a clinic or office practice?
About a year ago, I pointed you toward
an excellent piece by my friend Jeff Baillon at KMSP-TV in Minneapolis. It explored how one hospital was trying to limit drug companies from marketing their goods and were having a heck of a time keeping them at bay.
Additional resources include
this article from the
Journal of the American Medical Association and
this piece on medical ethics from Santa Clara University.
I wonder if doctors, increasingly, are handing out drug samples these days to people who cannot afford the prescriptions. Are those samples also considered to be gifts from the drug companies?
