Source: Wall Street Journal
You may recall a prior blog post on this site, “All your doctors are belong to us” in which mention was made of class action litigation driving drug manufacturer, Eli Lilly to disclose physicians who receive money from Lilly. http://www.lillyfacultyregistry.com/lilly-registry-report.jsp.
You may further recall that just in time for Halloween, I posted about the ghostwriting of articles published in Peer-Reviewed Medical Journals. I emphatically (to the extent that one can be emphatic in a blog) suggested that this was a big deal and that it demonstrated the influence of drug manufacturers on the practice of medicine.
Well, apparently the drug manufacturers aren’t content with influencing currently practicing physicians, they want to get to them while they are still in medical school!
Northwestern’s prestigious Medical School recently joined Standford University Medical School’s move to disclose medical faculty ties to big drug industry. Online faculty bios (it’s true, I tried it myself) for the medical schools now list service on boards of directors, paid consulting, royalties, lectures and appointments from drug manufacturers, including, Pfizer, Merck and Eli Lilly.
You might think, so what? Doctors prescribe drugs and it fits that they would be “in a relationship with” drug and medical device manufacturers. True. However, consider how well the influence of credit card companies upon the US Congress worked out for consumers. And that was just your money, a lot of money. What price for your health?
~Posted by David Marc Schwadron, Esquire