Tuesday, January 25, 2005

This is good:

Iowa Doctors Say No to Drug Companies

A group of doctors say they'll no longer accept free coffee mugs, pens or other trinkets and free lunches from pharmaceutical representatives in an effort to keep their brand names in view, along with hopes the doctors will prescribe the drugs.

"It's just plain ethically wrong and it's designed to color our judgment," Dr. Dean Abramson of Gastroenterologists P.C. said of the practice. "I don't think patients realize how much drug companies spend on this."

According to a report by the California Public Interest Research Group, U.S. spending on "detailing" efforts by drug representatives to reach doctors directly totals nearly $5 billion annually, costs that are passed on to consumers....


--Newsday/AP

I wish more doctors would join in. In fact, I think it would be great if a few TV networks made a similar decision -- not to accept any more ads for prescription drugs. We're paying for those in higher drug costs, no?

(Again from DU.)

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