In an effort to educate doctors against accepting gifts from drug companies, the American Medical Association is starting a $1 million education campaign that is partly funded by the drug companies.
The pharmaceutical companies that are contributing a total of around $675,000 include: AstraZeneca International, Bayer Corp., Eli Lilly and Co., Glaxo SmithKline, Merck & Co., Inc., Pfizer Inc., Pharmacia Corp., Procter and Gamble Pharmaceuticals and Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories. Most companies contributed about $50,000 each, but some gave as much as $100,000.
The campaign is aimed towards practicing doctors, medical students, physicians in training, and drug company sales representatives. In 1992, the AMA set up guidelines in response to public concern over marketing practices where the drug companies treated doctors to expensive gifts, dinners, trips or cash payments.
IMS Health estimates that drug companies spent almost 16 million on marketing, including about $4 billion to promote drugs to doctors in their offices. Many observers believe that aggressive marketing of new drugs to doctors is partly responsible for the increase in prescription drug costs.
The Public Citizen's Health Research Group believes that the education campaign will not have any credibility when the drug companies are contributing funds. As Sidney M. Wolfe, the director of the group, states "They're [drug companies] certainly not going to encourage doctors to adhere to [the guidelines] when they're setting this kind of example."
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