_http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/524994?src=mp_ 
(http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/524994?src=mp) 
 
 
In my view, relations between physicians and industry have become  
scandalous.[1] Many academics and community opinion leaders are paid  large sums to 
market industry products by becoming members of speaker's bureaus,  by developing 
marketing materials disguised as educational information, by  signing articles 
written by ghostwriters, and by promoting the off-label use of  products. 
These activities may benefit companies' shareholders, but they do not  benefit 
patients, and because the products promoted are usually the newest and  most 
expensive, they inflate the cost of care. 
Though physicians who engage in these activities often believe that company  
largesse cannot influence their objectivity, all evidence from psychological  
studies suggests that this is a naive belief.[2] Aside from the harm  of such 
biases to patient care, participation in marketing sets a poor example  for 
younger physicians, who are being seduced by industry every day with  lunches, 
dinners, and gifts. The public has become increasingly aware that  doctors are 
making financial "deals" with pharmaceutical, biotech, and device  companies. 
People are beginning to lose trust that their doctors' advice is for  their 
benefit rather than for their doctors' benefit. 
The profession's response to the increasing involvement with industry has  
been feeble.[3] Our professional organizations and academic medical  centers 
must take a leadership role in reversing this troublesome trend by  reducing or 
eliminating pharmaceutical largesse at their institutions. 
That's my opinion. I'm Dr. Jerome Kassirer, Distinguished Professor of  
Medicine at Tufts University and former editor of The New England Journal of  
Medicine.

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