E-DRUG: Meeting for those with GBP 1173.83 to spare

E-drug: Meeting for those with GBP 1173.83 to spare
----------------------------------------------------------

Meeting for those with GBP 1173.83 to spare (586.33 for registered charities)

SMI Pharmaceutical Conferences

Discover the secret to producing key alliances by attending SMI's second
conference on

Developing successful partnerships between patient groups and
pharmaceutical companies

21st & 22nd April 1999, Caf� Royal, London

Benefit from a unique opportunity to gain practical insight and advice from
our experte panel of speakers including

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVES
* [...] Pfizer
* [...] Eli Lilly
* [...] Glaxo Wellcome
* [...] Smithkline Beecham Pharma
* [...] Novo Nordisk
* [...] Janssen Pharmaceuticals
* [...] Roche
* [...] Boots The Chemists
* [...] UCB Pharma

PATIENT GROUPS AND HEALTH CARE SPECIALISTS
* [...] Office for Public Management
* [...] Patients' Liaison Group
* [...] National Asthma Campaign
* [...] Alzheimer Disease Society
* [...] The Stroke Association
* [...] Ligue Francaise Contre le Cancer
* [...] Quality Partnerships
* [...] National Association for Patient Participation N.A.P.P.
* [...] Primary Health Care Specialist Group
* [...] IMS Health

Just one pick from the program:

INDUSTRY IN SUPPORT - GLAXO WELLCOME'S PERSPECTIVE
Positive action: Developing a partnership with international
non-governmental & patient groups.
*Glaxo Wellcome's experience in developing partnerships with patient groups
*Policy impact on development of product and compatibility with patient
requirements
*Building relationships with patient groups: Effective communication
*Working together with the patient with no detriment to production
*Methodology of support
*Future developments of the industry and relationship with consumers.

???.???, Positive Action Co-ordinator, Glaxo Wellcome
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a serious meeting. (For those lucky enough to have access to Scrip).
It shows one of the marketing strategies of the industry. The patients
groups are used for pressing (I suppose) the national insurance and the
politicians to finance "new and promising therapies". The real force behind
them, financially and ideologically, is the pharmaceutical industry. The WHO
may have been infiltrated by the industry. But WHO is not the only one.

We all hope for a national policy. A rational and cost-effective one. This
we cannot have if we listen too closely to the patient organisations. This
meeting suggests quite strongly that they receive their lines from the industry.

Is there a clean way to fight this strategy? I suppose the best strategy is
exposing - publicly - the sources of income of these pressure groups. Like
the purchase of leaflets, the membership fees for companies, salaries to
executives. Secretarial services. Postage. Travel expenses.

In Norway there has been some exposure along these lines, but not by far
enough. Has anyone else experience to share?

Gaut Gadeholt, MD, PhD
Clinical pharmacologist
Dept of Clinical Chemistry, The National Hospital
N-0027 OSLO, Norway
gaut.gadeholt@labmed.uio.no (w)
Tel +47 22 86 70 80 (w - direct)
gaut@online.no (p)

--
Send mail for the `E-Drug' conference to `e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.
Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: `owner-e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.