No Free Lunch?

Are you a physician who wants to "just say no" when the drug industry's reps come knocking on your door? You can get help from the website run by Dr. Bob Goodman, a general internist in New York City. Dr. Bob's No Free Lunch campaign encourages physicians to "sign the pledge" promising to eschew gifts, free samples and meals from drug industry reps.

These unseemly practices were in the news yesterday because of a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine, which confirmed that more than 90 percent of doctors in the U.S. still accept freebies from drug industry reps. This marks no change from a similar survey conducted several years earlier, which suggests the American Medical Association's voluntary program to curb these practices is not having much of an impact.

How about the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Assn. guidelines, which were also supposed to curb the more unseemly aspects of this subtle form of bribery? Their representative appeared on CNBC yesterday morning debating yours truly. You can see the clip here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sde1WlWAogo