July 29, 2003
The people who run drug companies are crafty devils; I'll
give them that. They can find more ways to sell drugs than
the neighborhood narcotic pusher! Case in point: Paying
doctors to market drugs to OTHER doctors. Why would they do
this? Because drug makers are prohibited from marketing
individual drugs for the treatment of medical conditions the
FDA hasn't specifically approved them for...
But DOCTORS labor under no such restrictions.
That's right: Doctors can legally prescribe any drug to any
patient for any condition. For example, if your M.D.
believes - or has been convinced by another doctor on the
drug company payroll - that prescribing a certain foot fungus
drug will cure you of cataracts, then it's perfectly legal
for him (or HER, I know!) to recommend it. As long as the
prescribing doc learned about the technique from ANOTHER
DOCTOR, it's all well and good in the eyes of the law.
So what do the drug companies do? They pay individual doctors
tens of thousands of dollars to give presentations and
seminars to their colleagues about the wonders of a certain
drug that's made for one disease to treat other medical
conditions - thereby increasing demand for the drug without
illegally "marketing" it. The spokes-doctors become, in
effect, drug sales reps to their industry.
This seems to push the envelope of what's legal, doesn't it?
A former employee of drug maker Warner-Lambert (now owned by
Pfizer) thinks so, too. He's the star whistle-blower witness
for the prosecution in a case against the drug giant for
illegal marketing practices - including not just such "peer
selling" scams as revealed above, but also the outright
suggestion of unapproved uses by the company's field sales
reps! The gall and greed of these people is outrageous, isn't
it?
This could be big - a landmark case for reigning in the out-
of-control marketing practices of drug companies. It could
also send shockwaves throughout the conventional medical
community about the proper role of doctors in the medication
process - and maybe force some basic ethics back into the
equation...
Think about it: Would you feel good about taking a drug in an
unauthorized manner because your doctor was paid to endorse
it to his colleagues - and he needed to be able to say he
prescribed it in his practice?
Don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to be a guinea pig.
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