To Lehman Brothers, Linens 'n Things and the blank VHS tape, add another American institution that expired in 2008: drug company trinkets.
Starting Jan. 1, the pharmaceutical industry has agreed to a voluntary moratorium on the kind of branded goodies -- Viagra pens, Zoloft soap dispensers, Lipitor mugs -- that were meant to foster good will and, some would say, encourage doctors to prescribe more of the drugs.
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The pens may seem trivial yet physicians are just as susceptible to brand awareness and allegiance as any other group of professionals if not more so. They have little time to spend researching the products they prescribe and the drug reps are very willing to make life easier for doctors, all with the proviso (wink, wink, nod, nod) that it is for the research data/info and not one of the sleazier forms of commercial relationship building known to mankind.
And then there are the outright bribes. Case in point...Si
And then there are the pharma companies that exert huge influence by paring or bundling products. An example would be a good workhorse drug that certain patients truly need but the purchase of that drug is "bundled" with a new drug, one that may undesirabl
Decade after decade patients get the short end of the stick. Patients are often underserved or poorly served. While you can get great medical care in the US it is clearly far from "the greatest health care system in the world".
The big pharma companies spend more on marketing than research. All this free junk they hand out to practicing physicians only serves to increase the cost of a prescription.
aside from the "junk" they hand out to physicians -- there are the golf trips and jet rides and godknowswhatelse that they dish out to elected public officials
But, how else will doctors decide which drugs to prescribe if they don't have neat swag to choose from?
That's why, whenever going to the doctor and BEFORE he just writes a script, even if you have a low co-pay, ask: "hey, Doc, you got any freebies"??
Giving samples has been one way for doctors to help low-income folks without health insurance. With the coming of universal health care, hopefully, the samples won't be necessary either.
True!!!!! At a time whne I have really bad insurance I went to a neighborhood satellite clinic of University of Maryland Hosp. They gave me monthly samples of anything I needed.
Yeah, I'm sure that it's rough for them to make profit on a pill that costs them ten cents to make that they sell for ten dollars.
This country and it's out of control greed disgusts me so much it's just plain unbelievable.
The saving grace is, that it will all come to an end... very soon.
laughing right.....
Ohhhhhh! Whew! They only had Viagra marketing pens.
My husband is a diabetic and he has an Insulin pen. His pen actually administers his Insulin. So when I read the title of this thread, I thought there were men running around with pens that administer Viagra.
Oh mercy, the visualizations that popped into my head were hilarious! LOL!
LOL! You're not the only one who read the headline that way!
So glad to see this industry moving away from such blatant conflicts of interest over the past few years. I am sure there is still a long way to go.
I remember working as a waiter in a posh restaurant about 7-8 years ago while finishing school. Pharmaceutical reps would schedule high-end dinners for groups of doctors, and their spouses, during which they would give a "research" presentation on a new drug or procedure using the company's equipment. I was always aghast -- this was legal? "Here's a $100 dinner for you and your wife, and here is our drug. I leave it to your medical judgment..
That, in the end, is where part of our health insurance premiums were going, for "research.
"research" and merchandising and salaries for reps
just part of the bloated cost of medicine
I have hundreds of pens from when I was a resident, and can honestly say that not one has influenced my prescribing habits. I only use the generic name when writing prescriptions anyway. Before computerized charts I'd probably go through a pen in 7-10 days. This is just an inconvenience and is kind of stupid. We went to drug company dinners as residents, tuned the speaker out since we were all half asleep anyway from working 90-100hrs a week, ate our Filet mignon and went home...to another weeks worth of mac and cheese. There was probably only a handful of dinners that really had any impact, one was on abdominal closure devices, and had excellent research references, and turned out to produce superior results. Yes it's legal, you sound as physicians throw out years of clinical judgment and training for a moderately priced steak. I've seen pharm reps completely castigated by physicians at at some of these dinners.Th
There ya go--it's always managed care's fault, isn't it? Not the anesthesiologist who won't take less than $100k per year at his first job straight out of school. Not the hospital that adds beds it can't fill. Not the medical group who start a radiology facility to compete with the hospital so they can keep more of the money. Not the insurance companies that pay their executives godawful amounts to make irrational investments then jack their rates to cover the losses. Not the provider who stops accepting Medicare patients because the government doesn't pay enough. Managed care is the scapegoat.
The HMO pays per capita (head/person). the design is to keep you in their office only and away from other necessary treatment, and yes they get big fat bonuses for keeping you away from specialist and expenseive test.
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New York Times | NATASHA SINGER | December 31, 2008 07:44 AM