[e-drug] bmj.com: Editor's choice

[sfoster@bu.edu]

E-drug: bmj.com: Editor's choice
---------------------------------------------

Hello E-druggers,
The editor of the BMJ raises a critical issue about drug information and
marketing below, in his editorial "What's your price?".  This week's issue
of the BMJ has a number of letters replying to their May 31 issue on drugs
and physicians -- both issues are free on line.
best wishes,

Susan Foster, PhD
Chair, Department of International Health
Boston University School of Public Health
715 Albany Street
Boston MA 02118 USA
phone: 617 638 5234, 638 5397
fax: 617 638 4476
sfoster@bu.edu
http://www.bumc.bu.edu/ih (the department)
http://dcc2.bumc.bu.edu/sfoster/ (my courses)



-----Original Message-----
From: bmj-mailer@liontamer.stanford.edu

Subject: bmj.com: Editor's choice
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bmj.com Customised @lerts: Editor's Choice for Saturday, 09 August 2003
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bmj.com: http://bmj.com/?etoc
This issue's table of contents:
      http://bmj.com/content/vol327/issue7410/?etoc
Editor's Choice for this issue:
      http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/327/7410/0-g
Daily summaries of health stories appearing in the UK Press
      http://bmj.com/uknews/?etoc
---------------------------------------------------------

Editor's choice What's your price? About six months ago a woman
representing a drug company rang me and said that she would take me to "the
restaurant of my choice" if we would change our policy on economic
evaluations and consider a paper that her company had sponsored. She
stopped short of offering to go to bed with me, but I was surprised by her
crassness. "Are you trying to bribe me?" I asked. "No," she answered
brightly, "just being nice."

Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised. Caroline White, chair of the Guild
of Health Writers, describes how guild members were invited to attend an
"exclusive preview" of laser eye technology where they could "discuss free
treatment in exchange for editorial features" (p 348). On another occasion
members were invited to a conference on cancer, but places would be  free
only if the journalists could guarantee copy both before and after the
conference.

Such invitations do not meet the code of practice of the Institute of
Public Relations, but the public relations agencies are desperate for
business and their clients for editorial coverage. "A 'message' reported in
the news media is eight times more likely to be trusted than an
advertisement," reports White.

Better than having a journalist write a piece on your product is to have
someone you pay to ghost write the piece. Minerva  (p 350) picks up on an
intriguing article from the British Journal of Psychiatry (2003;183: 22-7)
that compares articles on the antidepressant sertraline coordinated by "a
medical information company" and those produced in the usual way. The
authors, David Healy and Dinah Cattell, were able to identify the articles
coordinated by the company because of a document that was obtained in legal
proceedings. The document was produced for Pfizer, the manufacturers of
sertraline.

The company--Current Medical Directions from New York--"writes up studies,
review articles, abstracts, journal supplements, product monographs, expert
commentaries and textbook chapters." It obviously does its work well, as
its articles were roughly  five times more likely to be cited than control
articles.

The gains to be had from marketing your product hard are illustrated well
by a press release from "Linda Liu, healthcare analyst at Frost and
Sullivan" entitled "Critical success factors for the sexual dysfunction
medication market." The United States market, writes Liu, is "experiencing
a surge of interest and is expected to grow significantly from its current
$1.9 billion status in 2002. Advertising, a flux of new entrants, expansion
of treated indications, and growth in the sexual dysfunction prevalent
population (sic) are driving demand for sexual dysfunction medication."
Invest now, seems to be the message. There may  be more money in sex than
tobacco.

These pieces come to hand as we publish many responses to our theme issue
on doctors and drug companies (p 341). Several  respondents want us to grow
up and recognise that everybody has conflicts and agendas. Maybe I should
have gone to that restaurant.

Richard Smith
editor (rsmith@bmj.com) _

Access the current issue of the Essential Drugs Monitor No.32 at
http://www.who.int/medicines/mon/mon32.shtml
Access archives of past EDM issues at
http://www.who.int/medicines/information/infmonitor.shtml

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