No more free lunches: Doctors and journals in the South cut off drug  companies at their peril

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7410.341-b

BMJ 2003;327:341-342 (9 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7410.341-b

Letter

No more free lunches

Doctors and journals in the South cut off drug companies at their peril

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

EDITOR—Abbasi and Smith raise major ethical issues in their editorial.¹ However, the widening gap between the Northand the South globally is most glaring in healthcare delivery,training, and information dissemination.

In already rich countries drug companies compete to spend moneyon doctors and other prescribers, whereas in Africa and mostof Asia, doctors sweat in their attempts to get drug companies'help. In the South, where resources are meagre and inconsistent,doctors who heed Abbasi and Smith's advice do so at their perilbecause they may not be able to conduct research or publish papers. Poverty stricken doctors, although aware of the ethicalconundrum of the handouts from drug companies, find that theycannot break the link with drug companies because to do somay mean no patient care.

The link can be broken if governments and global monetary institutionswill support doctors' research, publications, and training.. . . [Full text of this article]

Joseph Ana, managing editor

BMJ West Africa, Luton LU2 7AE info@bmjwa.com