The following review is provided by the American Botanical Council (www.herbalgram.org), as part of the HerbClipâ„¢ Education Mailing Service. For more information, see the credit at the end of this article.
Are doctors' prescriptions influenced by gifts? In a series examining how medicines are marketed (available on the World Wide Web at (www.nytimes.com/drugs), Stolberg and Gerth1 look at pharmaceutical companies' use of computers to target doctors who may be receptive to prescribing their products.
Of $13.9 billion spent last year promoting drugs, 87% (about $12 billion) was aimed at doctors, as well as nurse practitioners (FNPs) and physicians' assistants (PAs), who can prescribe some drugs. "The pharmaceutical industry has the best market research system...in the world," says Mickey C. Smith, professor of pharmaceutical marketing at the University of Mississippi. This system includes a river of gifts, from prescription pads and pens to fancy dinners and free weekends (called "seminars"?) at resorts, complete with "honoraria" for attendees.