IT’S TIME TO UNITE AGAINST THE DRUG COMPANIES

DECEMBER 6, 2006

by Steve Wolfson and Roger Wolfson

So my son calls me today, and I answer the phone from my desk, and I guess I was a little surly. “Whatcha grumbling about, Dad?”

“I think I’m hungry.”

“You’re suddenly unable to feed yourself?”

“I could feed myself just fine. In fact, one of the pharmaceutical companies is offering a free lunch 20 feet away, and it smells like fancy stuff.”

“Why aren’t you there?”

“I never go to those things. It’s fine for drug companies to invest in research, but when they spend a fortune doling out food and propaganda to doctors, it just drives me nuts.”

My son paused for a second. That’s always a dangerous sign. You see, I’d forgotten that he can be, well… political. “Dad, this is fantastic.”

“Before you get any big ideas…”

“No, really. This is great. You should lead a boycott. A boycott of pharmaceutical graft!”

“Son…”

“No doctor should take gifts from a drug company without disclosing the gifts to their patients –- just like a politician can’t take money from a lobbyist without disclosing this to his constituents!”

“That’s not really fair to my colleagues…”

“So? Don’t you want to know if anyone giving you a recommendation is compensated by the beneficiary of the recommendation?”

“Son, it’s embarrassing, but doctors can’t afford to blow off the drug companies.”

“WHAT?”

“Calm down, calm down. Here’s the thing. Our low-income patients are in desperate need of the free samples we get from the drug companies. Free samples keep them alive.”

“I’m not saying I have a problem with that…”

“And it’s not like pharmaceutical companies are all bad. The drugs they develop save lives. And with the government slowing down its investment in research, the big companies have picked up some of the slack.”

“But on the other hand, Dad…”

I sighed. And admitted: “yeah, on the other hand, they spend more on marketing than on research. They only support the publication of research that boosts their products. They unleash an army of attractive drug representatives to cozy up to physicians. The reps offer free lunches, camaraderie that I confess really can brighten a workday, and glossy brochures that highlight the success and obscure the failure of their products. Meanwhile, their advertising directed to patients generates demand that bears little relationship to real needs.”

“Dad, you’re a columnist. Write an article about this!”

“You seem pretty charged up.”

“We could write it together! We could ask every doctor to say no to the free lunches and the glossy brochures. Don’t some hospitals and medical schools already do that? Doesn't Yale? We could ask for more free samples, instead! And we could ask physicians and patients who read this article to ask their elected representatives to regulate pharmaceutical marketing! It’s the only way to change things, Dad! We need a movement! Let’s ask doctors and patients to stand up for honest marketing and for assistance to patients who can’t afford drugs they need!”

I confess, I was reluctant to get involved in this. But ultimately, I realized — I paid for the man’s education, and he was right. So we wrote this article, and we hope you’ll mention it to everyone you know, and that this movement will catch on.

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Steven Wolfson is a cardiologist in New Haven. Roger Wolfson is a writer living in Los Angeles.