"BIg Pharma" marketing practices and doctor "kickbacks?"

[nellie]

I try not to be a conspiracist and get really annoyed when people paint with a broad brush or see the illicit behind every corner.

However, I got to wondering after just watching a TV news item about how pharmaceutical marketing impacts our personal doctor visits..

Apparently the US supreme court just passed a ruling that sanctions the ( continued) practice of pharmacies selling the names of doctors and the medications they prescribe ( apparently minus the patient names) to pharmaceutical companies. The idea being that this can be used to market a particular drug to Doctors. So if Doctor A prescribes lots of Drug Z, the maker of Drug M can then target to convert the Doctor the prescribe more of M. Now free samples are one thing, so what. But does this also mean $$ “kickbacks?”

But what does all this mean to us as medical consumers? I personally don’t care which drug I use as long as it works and is reasonably safe and affordable. In terms of my ADD meds, my doctor has been very supportive in helping me find the right one and I haven’t noticed him “pushing” one over the other. ( I think I’ve tried most of the popular ones)

So my question is : has anyone noticed them being pushed toward one drug brand or another by a Doctor? Or am I missing some bigger picture here? In terms of the ruling I mentioned earlier, to me, aside from creepy and invasive, no worse than any other guerilla marketing we endure for the sake of living in a free market democratic society.

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[Anonymous]

nellie- you are not a conspiracist when what you are seeing/thinking is TRUE. i would invite you to do more research. it is simply APPALLING. while things seem to improve in one area (ie supreme court decision you referenced), there always is another corner or rock or loophole that is discovered. your best defense is to BE INFORMED.

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[nellie]

yes but what do you think – is it just creepy ( as I think) or is there any indication that you are being prescribed certain brands of drugs over others?

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[trashman]

if this is true , then your doctor is not looking after your best interest, to a point so of the drugs prescribed are done by trial and error but if your doc is not using samples and if nothing else a pharmacist advice then I would say find a new doctor.

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[Anonymous]

In my neck of the woods (province of Québec), pharmaceutical regulatory bodies have set sanctions against pharmacists disclosing such information a while ago and this phenomenon has now disappeared . But, believe it or not, pharmaceutical majors have created “survey institutes” that directly poll willing doctor on their prescribing preferences in exchange of participation in pseudo contests to win stuff…

But don’t get me wrong! I sincerely believe that the vast majority of doctors (north or south of the border) have excellent work ethics. The fact of the matter is that, even if there are multiple name brands for ADD/ADHD medication, almost all of those can be regrouped in 2 categories (methylphenidate and amphetamin derivatives), making the final choice of a name brand a bit random since there are no easy way to predict patient’s response to one or another version of methylphenidate or amphetamin…

But, of course, if one feels that the choice of the medication he/she is prescribed is clearly biased by marketing incentives, a discussion with his/her practionner is required…And a 2nd evaluation could be beneficial…

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