Discussion of Article:
- When you are sick and take medicine, that medicine is made by a company. How does your doctor know which medicine to give you when you are sick? (Answer: doctors try different drugs to see which ones they like; they read articles to see which ones work; they ask other doctors for advice; they hear educational presentations from other doctors.)
- Companies that make medicines try to get doctors to use their medicine in different ways. What are some ways you would try if you were a drug company? (Drug reps come to doctors offices to make a drug pitch, like a traveling salesman and give free samples; they give presentations at conferences; they advertise in magazines; they sponsor research studies that are published in medical journals).
- One company is in trouble right now for trying to get doctors to use their medicine by buying the doctor expensive dinners, taking the doctors on fishing trips, sending the doctors on paid vacations, etc. This is known as "kickbacks" and it is illegal. Why?
- Novartis is being accused of spending more than $65 millions over the course of 9 years on alleged kickbacks. In one case, a Florida doctor was paid $3750 to speak to other doctors about the drug and to convince them to use it. This is called a conflict of interest. Why is this wrong?
- What harm could come to patients from this?
- [Note: when my husband was in residency, several drug companies took us out to expensive dinners at kosher restaurants with a few other doctors and their wives to "pitch" a drug. The dinners had no expense limit. Everyone ordered whatever they wanted and the bill came to hundreds of dollars. The dinners were 95% social, with the drug rep talking about the drug for about 5 minutes. Ask your kids: was this right? How could this make a doctor feel about a certain drug in a way that is a potential conflict of interest?]
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