Our Daily Meds : Most doctors take gifts or cash from the drug companies says author Melody Petersen

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Monday, January 12, 2009 11:01 am Email this article
"Unfortunately, physicians have lost their way," Melody Petersen, author of a new book called Our Daily Meds: How The Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves Into Slick Marketing Machines And Hooked The Nation On Prescription Drugs, told Bill Moyers on his television program The Journal.

"I don't think the public really understands this, but in 1951, Congress changed the law so that we would require a prescription for certain drugs," Petersen continued.

"Before, we could go into a drugstore and get whatever we wanted, and Congress wanted an educated physician, who had the best interest of his patients at heart, and was independent from the pharmacies and drug companies to be the gate keeper."

"But now, a lot of the physicians in America take gifts or cash from the drug companies."

"Some physicians take hundreds of thousands of dollars a year."

In her book she notes that "a survey in 2007 found that virtually all physicians – 94 percent – take gifts or cash from the drug companies." Former New York Times Journalist

Melody former covered the drug industry for the New York Times

Melody, who formerly covered the drug industry for the New York Times, revealed this last Friday night, May 16th, 2008, in an interview with Bill Moyers on his PBS television program Journal.

 

Comment

Comment : I know a lot of great doctors who have the best interest of their patients at heart

I know a lot of great weight loss doctors who truly have the best interest of their patients at heart, although I have never asked any of them if they have ever taken gifts or cash from the drug companies.

REFERENCE

Petersen M. Our Daily Meds : How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves Into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.

Book’s Website

 

 

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