Pfizer stops funding medical education provided by profit making companies

doi:10.1136/bmj.a708

Published 8 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a708
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a708

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Pfizer stops funding medical education provided by profit making companies

Janice Hopkins Tanne

¹ New York

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

Pfizer, the world’s second largest drug company, saidlast week that it would no longer pay profit making communicationand medical education companies to provide continuing medicaleducation courses. It will continue to pay for education preparedby non-profit organisations, academic institutions, teachinghospitals, and medical societies.

Pfizer said it was making the change to avoid the appearanceof having conflicts of interest, because critics had said thatcourses supported by the industry were not purely educationalbut promoted the use of specific drugs.

US doctors are required to complete a certain number of hoursof continuing medical education courses to keep their medicallicences current.

Pfizer’s press release quoted Dave Davis, vice presidentfor continuing education and improvement at the Associationof American Medical Colleges, who said, "This move by Pfizer,to my knowledge the first among commercial supporters of CME[continuing medical education], represents a significant advancein . . . [Full text of this article]

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