Another way to tame the monster

doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7560.202-a

BMJ 2006;333:202 (22 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7560.202-a

Letter

Another way to tame the monster

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

EDITOR—The Angell-Spence-Godlee proposal to ban pharmaceuticalmanufacturers from researching their products has considerablemerit.¹ However, Healthy Skepticism advocates a more comprehensivealternative that will also reduce the harm currently causedby misleading promotion, biased industry funding of education,and high drug prices. Our alternative is also more politicallyachievable because implementation can be government revenueneutral while securing long term competitive return on investmentfor the pharmaceutical industry.

Pharmaceutical companies currently have four main functions:manufacturing, research, promotion, and education. Performanceof those functions is currently distorted by incentive systemsthat reward only activities that increase sales of more expensivedrugs regardless of the impact on health care. We recommendthat the four functions be paid for separately by governmentagencies via iterative competitive public tender. This wouldallow the relevant divisions and subcontractors of pharmaceuticalcompanies to compete with universities and non-profit non-governmentalorganisations for funding to . . . [Full text of this article]