Pretty sneaky:
No doubt you saw this article in the Washington Post describing the efforts of PharmedOut to make no-cost, continuing medical education sessions available to physicians. As pharmaceutical companies sponsor a large proportion of CME sessions for physicians, the ostensible purpose of PharmedOut’s campaign lies in removing Pharma’s undue influence on prescribing behavior.It seems PharmedOut.org was created through a $21 million grant from Warner-Lambert (now Pfizer). The money represents part of Pfizer’s 2004 settlement of the whistle-blower suit involving W-L’s off-label promotion for Neurontin.
On another topic in the same rant:
At some point genuine health care reform will require breaking the power of organized medicine, making the profession overwhelming female, and reducing it to the status of government paid professionals akin to school teachers. Until then, efforts to control cost, increase access and improve quality will have marginal results at best.
I agree somewhat with that assessment, but it’s unlikely to happen in this generation.
Update –
Salon.com with their take:
So, to recap: An unlawful marketing campaign by Pfizer is helping to pay for an educational outreach program that is spreading the word about a potentially unlawful campaign by Eli Lilly. There is a great beauty to this.
