Toys Home, Part Two: Drug companies boycott conference following speech

That’s not the only ‘we’ll take our toys home’ tantrum from the drug companies reported this week.  A young medical researcher almost stopped the show after her talk about drug company influence on medical education at a conference in New Mexico.

One drug company representative said her company would immediately withdraw its sponsorship, while every drug company exhibitor, save one, dismantled its stand and left.  The one who stayed hadn’t heard the speech.

As the speaker, Prof Adriane Fugh-Berman from Georgetown University, told the audience: “Drug representatives are paid to be nice to us, as long as we cooperate, sustaining our market share of targeted drugs and limiting our continuing medical education lectures to messages that increase drug sales.”

Brave words, and ones you won’t hear around New Mexico again in the very near future.

(Source:  British Medical Journal, 2006; 333: 1027).


E-news broadcast 16 November 2006 No.310 [Subscribe]