I remember as a medical student being appalled at the spectre of well paid hospital doctors climbing over one another to get their hands on the free food and branded knick-knackson offer at supposedly educational lunchtime meetings sponsored by drug companies. I found the blandishments of the company representatives preposterous—a view confirmed when I briefly joined their ranks in a subsequent career break. Ever since I have avoided such meetings and contacts with the world of pharmaceuticals—and I am sympathetic towards the approach of the No Free Lunch campaign (endorsed by Moynihan and Cassels), which recommends that doctors “just say no to drug reps” and send back their advertising paraphernalia.

Ray Moynihan, Alan Cassels

Allen and Unwin,

$A26.95,

pp 272

ISBN 1741145791

http://www.allenandunwin.com

Rating:

Selling Sickness is a spirited journalistic exposure of the methods used by the pharmaceutical industry to expand the market for its products. These include the redefinition of risk factors—such as raised cholesterol and blood pressure, or reduced bone mineral density—as diseases afflicting substantial sections of society and requiring treatment …