Drug Marketing

June 28, 2004

Great article in the NYT on recent investigations of the marketing practices

of the pharmaceutical industry. As most of us already know, " ...most drug

makers now spend twice as much marketing medicines as they do researching

them. "

Another sobering excerpt:

***********

" Dr. Pappas and eight other liver specialists who were interviewed say the

system worked like this: Schering-Plough paid physicians $1,000 to $1,500

per patient for prescribing Intron A, the company's hepatitis C treatment.

In conventional clinical trials, participants are given drugs free, but the

doctors said that in these cases the patients or insurers paid for their

medication. Because patients usually undergo Intron A treatment for nearly a

year and the therapy costs thousands of dollars, Schering-Plough's payments

to physicians left plenty of room for the company to profit handsomely, the

doctors said.

In return for the fees, physicians were supposed to collect data on their

patients' progress and pass it along to Schering-Plough, the doctors said.

But many physicians were not diligent about their recordkeeping, and the

company did little to insist on accurate data, according to Dr. Pappas and

the others.

One of the nation's most prominent liver disease specialists, who spoke on

condition of anonymity for fear of angering big drug makers, called the

trials " purely marketing gimmicks. "

" Science and marketing should not be mixed like that, " the doctor said. "

****************

It's crystal clear just who is in control of our " health " care system and

the fines that the companies pay for their fraudulent, kickback-laden

marketing practices are a drop in the bucket compared to their profits.

Crime pays, I guess.

read the whole article at

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