Novo paid U.S. pharmacist to switch drugs -NYT

[CAG]

"Sat Jan 28, 2006 02:23 AM ET
NEW YORK, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk A/S (NOVOb.CO: Quote, Profile, Research) sales representatives paid at least one pharmacist for a major drugstore chain to encourage switches from competitor Eli Lilly & Co.'s (LLY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) products, or from its own lower-priced versions to higher-priced ones, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
Citing documents it obtained as well as former and present company officials, the Times said Novo may have crossed a line in its zeal to compete with Lilly in capturing the lucrative insulin market in the United States."

Yeah, because how dare they cross the line of sending physicians to $50 a plate steak dinners every week and providing lunch to the whole clinic staff and giving physicians $200 for completing a 20 minute survey and giving research grants to physicians who tow the company line at scientific conference symposia. Those practices are all on the up and up, of course. If only the public knew just how much money changes hands "indirectly" from the drug company to physicians (and clinical pharmacists) in academia they would puke.

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1. I am a physician of over thirty years....please let me know

where all the money is going, because it sure isn't coming to me. The lunches, once every three months, are journal clubs and last over two hours....I can buy the same lunch at the same restaurant for $15.00. That is God's truth. I would make more money staying in my office seeing patients for two hours than listening to other doctors but exchange of information is helpful to keeping up-to-date. Try working all day, then going to a dinner on a Tuesday night for another couple of hours for more work talk. I have never gotten $200 for a twenty minute survey... please tell me where I can sign up. Before you criticize, try walking in our shoes for a while and don't skip the years of training when we worked 130-140 hours a week for almost no salary. BTW, a lot of those "free" dinners are poorly attended as most doctors would rather go home and put their feet up.

[CAG]

2. I do walk in your shoes and I get the surveys and steak dinner invitations

every week. "Exchange of information" is helpful, but not when its being fed to us by the drug companies.