E-DRUG: AMA Pushes Ethics Guidelines About Gifts
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[crossposted from Pharm-Policy with thanks; source:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14186-2001Aug29.html
NN]
AMA Pushes Ethics Guidelines About Gifts
By Susan Okie
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 29, 2001; 2:00 PM
The American Medical Association is mounting a new educational campaign
costing $1 million to educate doctors about its ethical guidelines
against accepting gifts from drug companies - but most of the funding
for the effort is coming from drug companies.
Nine large pharmaceutical companies are contributing a total of about
$675,000 to help pay for the campaign, which is aimed at medical
students, physicians-in-training and drug company sales representatives
as well as practicing doctors, said Alan R. Nelson, a former AMA
president and a special adviser to the American College of Physicians.
<snip>
Wolfe said the AMA guidelines were originally issued in 1992 in response
to public concern over marketing practices in which drug companies often
treated doctors to expensive gifts, dinners, trips or cash payments.
Since then, he said, companies have partially cut back on such practices
but still commonly provide doctors with free drug samples, pens,
notepads and other gifts. Wolfe said there is considerable evidence that
accepting gifts from drug companies influences doctors' prescribing
patterns.
In recent years, overall spending by the pharmaceutical industry on
marketing has greatly increased. Last year, drug companies spent almost
$16 billion on marketing, including about $4 billion to promote drugs to
doctors in their offices, according to IMS Health, which collects data
for the industry.
<snip>
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