Can India stop drug companies giving gifts to doctors?

Big pharma continues to dole out gifts to doctors as lavish as cars and televisions and to pay for international trips despite voluntary strictures and government censure. “There is no let-up in this evil practice and the pharma companies continue to sponsor foreign trips of many doctors and shower with high value gifts like air conditioners, cars, music systems, gold chains, etc to obliging prescribers who then prescribe costlier drugs as quid pro quo,” said a 2010 report from the parliamentary standing committee on health and family welfare.1 Such promotions are deemed unethical because they represent covert advertising that has been shown to distort prescribing practice, influencing patients’ treatment. Doctors who accept gifts from drug companies, meet pharma representatives, and use their information are more likely to prescribe more expensive drugs.2