Can we trust drug companies?
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Can we trust drug companies?
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The UK drugs firm Glaxo Smith Kline has been fined $3 Billion after admitting bribing Doctors in the USA to prescribe drugs for adults and children which were not approved. It seems to have given out
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Forums » Off duty » News & media » Can we trust drug companies?
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Can we trust drug companies?
posted at 3/7/2012 7:39 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 963
First: 15/7/2011 Last: 24/5/2013 |
The UK drugs firm Glaxo Smith Kline has been fined $3 Billion after admitting bribing Doctors in the USA to prescribe drugs for adults and children which were not approved. It seems to have given out everything from Maddona Tickets to pleasure hunting trips or cash to Doctors so they would prescribe Seroxat, Welbutrin and Avandia. GSK accounts for some 5% of the FTSE benchmark Index and has a value of about $113 Billion – this fine/penalty of $3 Billion is to my knowledge the largest ever for a drug company. In addition GSK has agreed to pay a fine of about $1000 million to US authorities and a further payment of about $2 Billion in civil settlements to state and federal authorities. GSK also promoted medical papers that endorsed these products but did not disclose those papers which were critical of these drugs. GSK are also the people who say statins for everyone. How much can any drug company be trusted? |
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Re: Can we trust drug companies?
posted at 3/7/2012 9:16 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 339
First: 17/12/2011 Last: 15/5/2013 |
Well yes to some extent, but one needs to rely more on colleagues and your own judgment. Drug companies are in business to make money, I work to try to make people better. So my agenda and a Drug companies agenda will always be slightly different. In an ideal world, I think that most research in the evaluation of the effectiveness of medications, would be not in anyway be sponsored by drug companies, but this is not going to happen. One of my privileges of being senior partner is that I do not generally see drug company representatives at my surgery. Also I do wish that as with food packaging there was an easy to understand and comparable statistical NNT [number needed to treat ] and NNH [number needed to harm] and if possible any average gains in mortality for medications that need to be taken for decades. |
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Re: Can we trust drug companies?
posted at 3/7/2012 12:11 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2949
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 24/5/2013 |
Well, I suppose every time you prescribe a drug you do. If not I suggest we just sit around and wait until the NHS discover and trial new drugs. If it is anything like Medibank in Australia, we would still be using powdered foxglove, ground up willow bark and chewing coca leaves and poppy seeds for pain. We may take the mightier than thou approach to drug companies, and I have written critical articles to the BMJ about our relationship to them (Who sups with the devil must needs a long spoon) but when my patients are sick, I have faith that the drugs I prescribe have, by and large, undergone rigorous and scientific evaluations which means they are no wild card and are predictable and based on good science. There are always exceptions to the rule but do not forget there are medical practitioners who at times fall far short of the bar we set. I see drug reps only occasionally but of my choice but by and large I find the encounter useful and they usually go away with a long list of things to look up. They do not get off lightly and I usually offer them one of my pens. So in answer, "Yes" but not totally as I know they have their agendas and their shareholders to keep happy. I also know that whenever a drug rep sees you, he/she compiles a dossier on you.
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Re: Can we trust drug companies?
posted at 3/7/2012 12:23 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 878
First: 17/6/2011 Last: 24/5/2013 |
I agree that the public purse can not fund the level of innovation and research that is needed hence it is only fair that companies get some return. I think what we need are 'experts' independent of the drug companies and for all research that is conducted by drug companies or for anyone else to be freely available in the public domain once a licence to market the product is sought. sadian |
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Re: Can we trust drug companies?
posted at 3/7/2012 12:35 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1790
First: 7/3/2009 Last: 24/5/2013 |
Research of medications should be treated by government as research of military equippment. There you also have private companies, but with an open eye of the government. Life is the most valuable thing. You can't allow no regulation on what pharmaceutical companies manufacture, and certainly there are limits as to how to advertise a new drug. FDA in USA and similar organizations worldwide are not enough. Nowadays ministry of health became a place where there is less and less medicine and science and more and more figres, numbers and politics.In my opinion, one of the main roles for Ministry of health is to watch what drug cmpanies are doing and how rhey put it on market once approved. Unless there will be a fair degree of regulation,there will be growing mistrust. Today we are already nearing the situation. If financial issues overcome medical issues we will be deeply in trouble. The existing plethora of information, a lot of which can be contradictory and confusing, does not help the issue. So, I will use an expression fro Russian "Doveryaj i proveryaj", meaning: trust but check.
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Re: Can we trust drug companies?
posted at 3/7/2012 12:43 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 3045
First: 27/3/2012 Last: 20/5/2013 |
Considering the 'scenario' today, one cannot trust drug companies as most of these giant pharmaceutical companies seem to be involved in purely commercial interests, & not to surprise, are even strongly backed up by the political forces at every level. |
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Re: Can we trust drug companies?
posted at 3/7/2012 12:55 PM BST
on bmj.com
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*Moderator*
Posts: 683
First: 17/11/2008 Last: 24/5/2013 |
It did seem almost unbelievable when I read this story. First the promoting off license use, then the data hiding, then the kickbacks for doctors for prescribing these drugs. We have lots of debate at the BMJ about how much we should work with pharma companies.Without their sponsorship we would not be able to do some of the product developments we do (although they have no input into our content at all). But on the other hand, in the BMJ, we are often critical of how they behave. And I wonder how much doctors collude with pharma and rationalise the treats they get offered? The fine is huge- but will it change anything?
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Re: Can we trust drug companies?
posted at 3/7/2012 2:49 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1271
First: 13/4/2010 Last: 23/5/2013 |
Sadly Luisa I don't think it will. The pharmaceutical industry's prime objective is to maximise profit for shareholders (usually things like big institutional pension funds and their like). Whilst that remains their prime objective we will seem them cutting corners, doing dodgy deals, etc. It's the same with any big business - oil companies and their appauling environmental record; investment banks and their casino practices; supermarkets and their current treatment of dairy farmers (which, in the UK at least, is a national scandal); etc. As to Pat's suggestion re NNT - I have asked for NNT to be put in the BNF for every indication for every drug to allow clinicians to make a truly informed choice with their patients but so far nothing has happened. |
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Re: Can we trust drug companies?
posted at 3/7/2012 3:09 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 963
First: 15/7/2011 Last: 24/5/2013 |
Just for the record whilst the 'banner' question was Can we trust drug companies? the question in my post was How much can any drug company be trusted?. The impression I am getting is not very much? Will the fine make any difference? Absolutely not. The sums are huge, but to such companies they are simply absorbsed in a multiplicity of accounting practices that would make a woman of easy virtue blush. |
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