Bribery by Drug Companies

[Guest guest]

Drug firms a danger to health - report

International research exposes flaws in £33bn marketing budget

 

Monday June 26, 2006 Drug companies are accused today of endangering

public health through widescale marketing malpractices, ranging from

covertly attempting to persuade consumers that they are ill to bribing

doctors and misrepresenting the results of safety and efficacy tests

on their products.

In a report that charts the scale of illicit practices by drug

companies in the UK and across Europe, Consumers International - the

world federation of consumer organisations - says people are not being

given facts about the medicines they take because the companies hide

the marketing tactics on which they spend billions.

" Irresponsible marketing practices form a serious, persistent and

widespread problem among the entire pharmaceutical industry, " says the

report, which analyses the conduct of 20 of the biggest companies, two

of which are British. It calls for tougher government controls and for

the companies to put their house in order.

Scandals such as the withdrawal of Vioxx, a drug to relieve pain and

inflammation in arthritis, show that unethical drug promotion is a

consumer concern, says the report. Merck withdrew the drug in

September 2004, but allegedly knew it could increase the chances of

heart attacks and strokes from 2000 and has been accused of

manipulating study results to play down the risk. More than 6,000

lawsuits have been filed against the company in the United States by

people who claim they suffered heart attacks as a result of the drug,

or by their families.

Despite regulatory action against drug companies, the malpractice

continues, says CI. Many people in the UK may feel they are secure

because they trust their doctors to tell them which drug to take, but

CI says there is no room for complacency when drug companies spend

twice as much on marketing as on research - $60bn last year (£33bn) -

but do not publish information on their drug promotion practices. Of

the 20 companies, only Bristol-Myers Squibb provides a marketing code

of conduct to consumers.

" One obvious area of concern is about how the promotion of drugs by

the pharmaceutical companies to doctors can lead to irrational drug

use, " says Richard Lloyd, CI's director general. " There is a lot of

evidence around of malpractice. This report has found that it is still

going on and in a big way and it must be stopped. "

More than half the companies looked at were implicated in

controversies regarding their relationships to healthcare

professionals between 2001 and 2005, says the report.

The British company AstraZeneca, for instance, has been criticised by

regulatory bodies: it allegedly organised an event to promote its drug

Crestor which included tickets for a musical, and provided flights and

hotels for doctors to attend a conference on bipolar disorder on the

French Riviera. AstraZeneca says all employees must now pass an exam

on its code of conduct.

GlaxoSmithKline, Britain's largest drug manufacturer, is under

investigation by German and Italian authorities for alleged corruption

of doctors - at least 1,600 in Germany and more than 4,000 in Italy,

where the illegal gifts were said to amount to €228m (£156m) from 1999

to 2002. GSK says it has since established marketing codes. New staff

have to pass a test on the code of practice. The report points out

that in 2004, 87 employees were dismissed or agreed to leave the

company voluntarily as a result of breaches of the codes, and that

sanctions such as written warnings were imposed in 109 cases.