No Let-Up in Drug Marketing

From today´s Integrity in Science Watch from the Center for Science in the Public Interest::

Mass marketing campaigns by drug and device makers that utilize gifts, free samples and free meals still reach more than nine in ten practicing physicians, a survey released last week shows.

Among the 1,662 physicians who responded to the Boston-based Institute for Health Policy survey in late 2003 and early 2004, 94 percent reported some type of relationship with the pharmaceutical industry – usually in the form of free food or drug samples. Numerous studies have shown that these small gifts influence physician prescribing practices.

More than a third received drug company funding to attend professional meetings or continuing medical education seminars, which are a requirement of continued licensing in most states. And more than a quarter were paid as industry consultants or lecturers or for registering their patients in clinical trials.

In 2002, the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association passed voluntary codes of conduct in an attempt to rein in excessive marketing. The results of the new survey seem to suggest those codes had little impact.

Meanwhile, the movement to require the drug industry to disclose its gifts and grants to physicians is gathering steam. Five states and the District of Columbia have passed laws requiring disclosure. Vermont and Minnesota make those disclosures publicly available.

However, a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found those disclosures “incomplete” and of limited usefulness, and called for “more stringent laws with clear mechanisms for enforcement.” Legislation pending in New York that is backed by the state AARP chapter would require companies to report gifts greater than $75.