BMJ  2003;327:341 (9 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7410.341-a

Letter

No more free lunches

How to dance with porcupines

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—I am nice to drug representatives.

I accept shareholders of large multinational companies would not spend money on doctors if this was not profitable—make them prescribe more of their drugs. We as doctors should be aware of this.

Should I stop accepting gifts?¹

Should I stop watching the US tennis open championship, with its huge advertisement for rofecoxib (Vioxx) on the centre court last year?

Compare drug representatives with political lobbyists—hired hands who wine and dine politicians, take them to meetings at sporting events, fly them to exotic locations on fact finding tours, feed them at corporate lunches and political fundraising dinners. Doctors are not alone on the dancefloor at the porcupine ball.²

Let's put those lobbyists under the same scrutiny. Have you ever met an evidence based politician?

Over two weeks recently I used drug sponsorship to train 15 nurses as asthma educators (they cannot prescribe) and . . . [Full text of this article]

Mount Sheridan Medical Practice, Cairns, Queensland 4868, Australia steven.rudolphy@mtsheridanmedical.com.au

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