Informed, uncorrupted clinical decision making should be the measure of marketing

Parker and colleagues discuss ethical drug marketing.1 One simple, potent yardstick for distinguishing acceptable from bad drug marketing derives from the perspective of the prescribing doctor.

When treatment decisions are made, the clinician’s reasoning should be free from interference, evidence based, cost aware, and appropriate to the needs and wishes of the patient. This basic principle of medicine leads to two fundamental marketing requirements.

Firstly, the only acceptable form of marketing should be the provision of information …