[e-drug] Unanimous Vote Bans Gifts to Doctors in Massachusetts (2)

["Valeria Frighi" <Valeria.Frighi@psych.ox.ac.uk>]

E-DRUG: Unanimous Vote Bans Gifts to Doctors in Massachusetts (2)
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Dear all,

before rejoicing we must see the details of this, read the letter of the Massachussetts Biotechnology Council, the response by the US medical associations and compare with other less stringent laws, [Note:  It is still a Bill - not a Law yet.  BS] like those of Vermont and Illinois. 
I've tried to find the full text of the letter on the web but there is only a paragraph quoted in a newspaper article. 
If that has been made public and anyone has access I would really like to read it.

Extreme legislation passed with the most ethical intentions can cause more harm than good. 
We have painful examples of this in laws that are severely stifling clinical  research in UK and in Europe (only to transfer it to countries with less stringent legislation) and are clearly against patients' benefit. One of these laws  is the Data Protection Act which came to enforcement in 2002, the extremism of which make honest researchers' life a misery, completely baffle research subjects and  prevent rapid  innovation given that all medical research is now submitted to the arbitrary scrutiny of an army of  managers which people kafkaesque ethical committees often intent in power games with the medical profession. All these expensive managers on tax payers' money of course. 

Do you really think that, as a profession, we are so degraded as to change our clinical practice if we eat a sandwich offered by Ely Lilly, drink Astra Zeneca coffee in a BMS mug, write with a Novartis pen on a Novo-nordisk notebook and move our mouse on a Pfeizer pad?

And which drug company's drugs should we prescribe when our offices, coffee rooms and seminar halls in our universities and NHS work places are dotted with a collection of freebies from all the drug companies under the sun?

Do you really think we or the medical students, training doctors, young researchers and other consultants we teach should bring our own packed lunches/make our own coffee during our teaching sessions?
What's the alternative to drug companies' sponsorship of  our well deserved little comforts during the work we do yes for our salary, but also for science and patients' benefit? Our academic institutions or the NHS paying for them?
Fine with me- not sure about the tax payer though.

I have no doubt there IS such a thing as a free lunch/pen/notepad and even memory stick. Provided they come from a variety of sources and gifts are kept to small things.

Best wishes,

Valeria

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Dr Valeria Frighi
University Dept. of Psychiatry
Neurosciences Building
Warneford Hospital
Oxford
OX3 7JX
UK
Tel. -44 -1865 -223779
       07974920013
Fax -44 -1865 251076
"Valeria Frighi" <Valeria.Frighi@psych.ox.ac.uk>