BMJ  2006;333:1122 (25 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.39037.700150.3A

Letters

Doctors as lapdogs to drug firms

Not lapdogs, not pit bulls

In response to Fugh-Berman,¹ first of all, for ethical reasons, let me declare my conflict of interests: I am a medical marketing consultant for the pharmaceutical industry in Brazil. As an American trained physician, after my return to my homeland back in the 70s, I could feel the size of ignorance of the poorly informed Brazilian doctors, who are by no means more or less ignorant than doctors from other underdeveloped (or developing, if you wish) countries. Even in well developed countries the quality and the level of information held by doctors is variable and "not all doctors are educated equally."

My specialty is the development of continuing medical education projects for the pharmaceutical companies, which share with me the basic concept of intelligent medical marketing: promote the global understanding of the pathology first and then let the doctors know about your products in a balanced and ethical way. But, like drinking and driving, never mix medical information with product promotion.

Is this an easy task? Obviously not. Most of the drug companies behave just like you said, trying to turn doctors into lapdogs and being very successful on it. How can we transform this promiscuous relationship into an ethical and reliable source of medical information? The answer is strict regulation and intelligent control of educational materials produced by the pharmaceutical industry.

As a member of the National Health Council of the Brazilian Ministry of Health, I am working on a proposal based on the concepts described above for the implementation of regulatory legislation that would allow freedom with responsibility for the pharmaceutical industry to promote continuing medical education projects.

¹ MED MARK—Medical Marketing Consultants, Sao Paulo, Brazil pimazoni@uol.com.br

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Competing interests: AP is a medical marketing consultant for the pharmaceutical industry in Brazil

References

1. Fugh-Berman A. Doctors must not be lapdogs to drug firms. BMJ 2006;333:1027. (11 November.)[Free Full Text]

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Related Article

Doctors must not be lapdogs to drug firms

Adriane Fugh-Berman
BMJ 2006 333: 1027. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]