Big Pharma Criticized Again for Marketing Practices

Normally, if a company was called on the carpet for a questionable way of marketing their products, I would tend to give them the benefit of the doubt and gather all the facts before condemning them. However, because of some of the shaky things the pharmaceutical industry has pulled in the past, the behavior covered in the article below is very suspect.

At best, giving out free samples of medications without complete safety measures and information accompanying them is irresponsible. However, as the article points out, it also prepares both parents and children for other suggestions from doctors and drug companies, that will typically include the use of additional drugs, thus making the consumption of medication seem a casual decision.

What really gets my gall is that this practice is obviously a way to get doctors and their patients to try and buy additional products, but they have the audacity to say that the primary reason is to help poor families who can't afford medication. Why do drugs have to be marketed in such dishonest and manipulative ways in this country? It gives the whole industry a bad name, and is more damning evidence that Big Pharma is a profit-driven industry whose main purpose is to generate vast amounts of income by plying the legal drug trade despite the risks to consumers. Time and time again they have proven that they cannot be trusted to ensure the welfare of any one or anything other than their own bank accounts.


Free Drug Samples May Not be a Great Deal
By Rita Rubin, USA TODAY

Free samples of prescription drugs may carry hidden costs for children and teens, researchers report today.

In what they say is the first study to examine the use of free drug samples in pediatric patients, the authors analyzed data on 10,295 U.S. residents under age 18 from a 2004 nationally representative survey about medical expenditures.

Among all U.S. residents under 18, one in 20 got at least one free drug sample in 2004, the authors write in Pediatrics. Counting just those who had been prescribed medication, one in 10 got at least one free sample.

In a statement responding to the study, Ken Johnson, senior vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, an industry group, says free samples provide doctors with "valuable firsthand experience with new treatment options and can also play a valuable role in fostering the appropriate use of medicines."

But lead author Sarah Cutrona, an internist at Cambridge Health Alliance in Massachusetts, says giving out free samples "encourages a casual attitude toward medications."

Doing so bypasses pharmacists, who perform important safety checks, Cutrona says.

And, she notes, free samples lack childproof caps, instructions on what to do in case of an accidental overdose and information about kids' doses.

Of the 15 most commonly distributed free samples to children, Cutrona's study found, two are attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder medicines -- Strattera and Adderall -- and are controlled drugs because of their abuse potential.

And labels for those two, plus Elidel, for atopic dermatitis, and Advair, for asthma, received "black box" safety warnings -- the strongest possible -- between 2004 and 2007.

Previous research has shown that free samples lead doctors to prescribe drugs that might not be the best choice, says Cutrona, an instructor at Harvard Medical School.

For example, her new study found that some of the most widely distributed free samples were broad-spectrum antibiotics that aren't considered first-line treatments. Overuse of such drugs could contribute to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, she says.

The prescription drug industry says free samples fill an important role for poor or uninsured patients, but Cutrona's study
found few needy kids got them, because they didn't have access to the doctors who gave them out.

"While it is true that poor and uninsured patients are not the only recipients of drug samples," Johnson says, "a patient's financial situation is a factor physicians often consider when distributing such samples."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-10-05-drug-samples_N.htm