Medical journals and pharmaceutical companies: uneasy bedfellows

Dr Beck is one of those remarkable people who has complete insight
into his own motivations. Unfortunately I'm not. He says that he is not
influenced by free pens, and I accept that. The pharmaceutical companies
are giving him these free gifts out of the goodness of their hearts. They
expect no return--despite their duty to their shareholders to maximise
profits.

I wonder if Dr Beck would be willing to walk around for a year
advertising the BMJ about his person if I paid him 20p? That's what
companies are achieving with their free pens. And has Dr Beck considered
the effect on patients? Might they wonder--as he leans over the
anaesthetise them--why he is advertising a particular drug? Might some of
them worry for an instant that he has been influenced by the free pen,
even though he knows that he hasn't?

Richard Smith, Editor, BMJ

Competing interests:  
I am the editor of the BMJ and accountable for all it contains and its finances