Physicians and the Pharmaceutical Industry

Abstract

The present extent of physician-industry interactions appears to affect prescribing and professional behavior and should be further addressed at the level of policy and education.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Lessons Learned from a Pharma-Free Practice Transformation

“…8,12 A large amount of literature suggests that interaction with industry is associated with substantial negative consequences on patient safety, cost of drugs to patients, generic prescriptions, and evidence-based prescribing. 12 Although physician interactions with industry have declined in recent years-likely because of in- creased scrutiny and regulation-the proportion of primary care physicians with industry relationships remains stubbornly high (84%).…”

“…After this internal audit and self-study, the practice partners decided by consensus to pursue a policy prohibiting pharmaceutical industry interactions, including accepting and distributing drug samples. Despite the consistent evidence suggesting a negative effect of the physician-pharmaceutical relationship, 6,8,12 little guidance on how to transform a practice from being heavily detailed to pharma-free exists for those contemplating a policy change. Accounts of how various practices handle their drug sample inventories have been described, 18 -20 but the literature is relatively silent on the steps practices can take to extricate themselves completely from interactions with the pharmaceutical industry.…”

Who will guard the guards? Medical leadership and conflict of interest in South African healthcare

“…[24] There is clear evidence that the position of opinion leaders may correlate with industry affiliation. A recent systematic review of positions taken on the safety of rosiglitazone in the wake of reports questioning its cardiovascular harms found a rate ratio of 3.36 (95% CI 1.94 -5.83) in support of the agent in those with financial COI compared with those without.…”

The pharmaceutical industry, researchers and publishers: the realities of competing interests within specialty journals

“…Each of these strategies is strengthened -either directly by the pharmaceutical company or through public relations agencies -by using respected opinion leaders to front them. 3,8,9,11 By relaying their messages through established scientists and clinicians the pharmaceutical industry is able to gain credibility. Sometimes the opinion leaders do not write the articles themselves, but merely approve the text supplied by the manufacturer.…”