[india-drug] Doctors and Brands (5)

["uttawar murli" <uttawar@yahoo.com>]

Doctors and Brands (5)
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Paying for Drug Approvals ? Who's Using Whom?
``In regulatory policy, as in grand rounds, there's no such thing as a free lunch. ``
"The drug companies find the speakers, pay their honoraria, and provide free food for the doctors, which helps a lot with attendance," he said. "It works well for us, especially with our budgets so tight." Yet those lunches were actually quite costly for the hospital: attendees at such events predictably go on to prescribe the products promoted there ? which is precisely why the drug companies so willingly pay for these programs.

The FDA was having difficulty evaluating new drugs quickly and efficiently. The agency had been shaken by sit-ins held by AIDS activists protesting long review times, which they argued were killing them. The staff of the FDA was too small to adequately assess all the new drug applications the agency received. But the era's dominant ideology derided "bloated government" and demanded that Congress rein in "runaway spending."
In that climate, the sensible policy solution ?provide the FDA with more federal funding to hire enough people to carry out its mission ? was a nonstarter. But just as the FDA's slowness may have been costing patients with AIDS their lives, it was costing pharmaceutical manufacturers their income. So the industry stepped in and helped to design a plan under which companies would pay the salaries of agency employees who reviewed the companies' submissions. 
This penetration of commerce into the province of science isn't limited to continuing medical education. Since 1992, the United States has relied heavily on the pharmaceutical industry to pay the salaries of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists who review new drug applications.

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NEJM : 12th july2007
Indian situation is not better when we find Doctors and specialists enjoying in annual conferences in five star hotels, attending international conferences at the funding of Pharma companies and all top executives of the pharma companies in their knee bent attendance. China has executed its Regulator of Food and Drugs Administration Mr. Zheng Xiaoyu on Tuesday last 10th July2007 and other senior official  CIO Ensuing was given  suspended death sentence for taking bribes from pharma companies and approving their drugs .Can India do it?    Any comment?

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Uttawar Murli
Email: uttawar@yahoo.com
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