OT - Glaxo Says It Will Stop Paying Doctors to Promote Drugs

This is good, but on the flip side it probably means no more free samples of Glaxo drugs from your doctor. When the universe gives with one hand it always seems to take with another.

I hate defending "Big Pharma" and doctors but there has to be some system in place to make the doctors aware of new meds, otherwise they are wasting billions of dollars on R&D and patients are robbed of the possibility of positive experiences with new meds. I'm not in favor of any kind of kickbacks but a lot of patients depend on "free" samples. There are those here who would be in favor of tarring and feathering any time a pharma sales rep makes a doctor aware of a new med.

With no incentives to the reps, they have no incentive to give out samples. It's possible, maybe probable, that they pay at a greatly reduced rate for the samples they give out. At the very least, corporate makes a fund transfer from the sales division to the production division to cover the costs. It's how most big corporations work.

It's kind of ironic that doctors so often get accused of being in bed with Big Pharma but then you have all of those T.V. commercials aimed at patients to ask their doctor if Humira (or whatever) is right for you. If all of the doctors were as cozy with Big Pharma as some would lead you to believe, why does Big Pharma need to spend those megamillions of dollars on T.V. advertising at all? They could just rely on their bed partners to refer their meds. I'm not saying that things don't happen. I'm just saying that it gets blown waaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of proportion.

Yes, indeed it does speak volumes about this industry... the doctors pushing that industry, and that industry marketing directly to consumers.

Years ago, Big Tobacco and also Big Alcohol could target consumers directly... doesn't make it right though.

Thanks for the good news, InSoFla!

No surprise at some of the negative responses.....

Happy Holidays!
IAS

so you're telling me all he does is say bad things and people send him money ?

huh, guess I never knew -

and all people that have more money than you and live in a bigger house than you are bad ?

I'm assuming gary that you work for free ?

I was told by my friend that the real "commissions" are in specialists and that people fight for the jobs as they rarely come up - or at least here in Canada. He said that his goal is to move from family doctors where the money is no good to a territory with specialists... I remember laughing to myself and thinking, ok, so golfing a lot and 100+K a year is a crap salary.. Man did I choose the wrong career path lol.. geeze.

And I hear ya on the others that are a lot worse.. Though there are times when I wonder, especially when the blood, mucus, and pain hit full force.

Actually, go read up on quackwatch and see where they get their funding from. Pharmaceutical companies and governmental agencies reimburse people for sites like quackwatch. Conflict of interest = loss of credibility every single time.

I was also pretty surprised to see some names on there. It seems that any notable doctor who doesn't push drugs ends up on quackwatch.

Because I'm most likely the oldest contributor in this forum (71), I've probably had more experience with Docs pushing drugs.

10 years ago,I fired my first GI because she INSISTED I take prednisone.
I made it clear to the next one that it was not an option.

As I got older, my primary care docs (at different times) tried to convince me to take drugs when cholesterol was somewhat high and bone density was declining.
I did some research and opted instead for diet changes and supplements that worked very well.
At one visit, my blood pressure was a little high....here comes the drug suggestion.

In none of these instances were diet modifications or other alternatives mentioned. (And I've never been offered samples.)
It's always been up to me to do my homework and decide what I was willing to ingest.

When I was approaching menopause, the OB/GYN offered an injection that would lessen my symptoms. I found out about the side effects and said "No", lost 20 lbs. and took some supplements. His comment.."Oh, you're a smart one". Rather enlightening, I'd say.

Most people my age bring a laundry list of drugs when they visit the doctor. I've had the same "list" consisting of balsalazide and mesalamine enemas (as well as vitamins and supplements) for the past 10 years. If I didn't have UC, there would be no drugs.

Older people and youngsters are BIG target groups for the "med-pedlars" in the USA.
When I was a teacher, way too many kids were diagnosed with ADHD and put on Ritalin and other drugs.
Right now, there are many students at the local Univ. who use Ritalin for studying.

Don't get me started about the ethics of the medical profession!
IAS

Gary-
IMO you're comparing apples to oranges. Of course we live in a capitalistic society so people are entitled for payment for their efforts.
Seems to me that there is no comparison to the potential side effects of drugs vs supplements suggested by Mercola and OZ.

People in the medical profession have taken an oath to "Do no harm".
Prescribing untested drugs (and you can be sure that very few are tested well enough to predict long term side effects) is, in effect, using the public an guinea pigs.
So some die....oh well.

Every single day there's a new article about
1) a drug killing someone
2) updated warning labels for an existing drug to warn about some "unknown" side-effect - cipro, remicade/azathioprine, statins, tylenol, etc.
3) a doctor going to jail for malpractice
4) bribery, profit, kickbacks in the medical profession

It wasn't always like this. Ever since Reagan took away funding from the NIH, we've commercialized medicine and rely on the word of pharmaceutical companies. We all know how that's turning out now.

Unfortunately, the damage has already been done, and medicine has nearly lost all of it's credibility. The moment a doctor pulls out the prescription pad after some 5 minute appointment, he loses a patient's trust.

Just go through the reviews on amazon to see how disgruntled and ashamed most people are about medicine. Pharmaceutical companies even hire shills to counter some of the reviews.

Dr.Mercola advocates taking things like coconut oil and vitamin D for fighting colds. Last time I checked, there were no deaths or even permanent harm from those things. Vitamin D toxicity is very rare and coconut oil is harmless. If you go to your doctor, there's a 50% chance he/she will give you an antibiotic for a cold, causing unnecessary damage in the long run. The associate director of CDC recently said that we've reached the end of antibiotics.

He might be rich, but he doesn't have blood on his hands like most doctors and pharmaceutical companies do. To me, he's the lesser of the two evils. As they say, the enemy of my enemy is a friend.

Post Edited (StealthGuardian) : 12/18/2013 5:32:02 PM (GMT-7)