Saturday, November 24, 2007

Hooked: The Prequel

I'm in the middle of a good book, Hooked: Ethics, the Medical Profesion, and the Pharmaceutical Industry. I'm not quite ready to talk about it because I haven't finished it yet, but in a display of synchronicity too cool to ignore, the NY Times featured this article today. It's a first-person account of a psychiatrist recruited by a pharmaceutical company to deliver "educational talks" to other doctors which are of course sales pitches for the drug. This side job bolstered his annual income by twenty percent and brought many other perks. However, when the doctor's enthusiasm began to flag in light of troubling side effects that the company's slide show glossed over, and the company responded in kind, he quit. This article nicely encapsulates many of the issues that Hooked raises, but since I'm not done yet, that's really all I can say. So read this article and stay tuned.

In more serious news, reports indicate that Britney Spears may be preparing to adopt Chinese twins. Lord, say it ain't so.

2 comments:

Ali B. said...

I once worked in the pharmaceutical industry, in this very area - we organized all kinds of different ways that MDs and big pharmcos could get together to share the love. Then? We helped the pharmcos track data to prove that it work, that those docs really did prescribe more of whatever drug was sponsoring whatever event we organized ("consultants meetings" at golf resorts, dinners-n-NBA games...ski-n-spas for the family).

It really is as bad as these reports describe. At least it was then.

Professional Critic said...

Oy. Addict doctors hooked on swag, pharmco the big ol' pusher. I wonder how many do as that psychiatrist did and quit?