Pharmaceutical Industry Sales Reps Increasingly Buying Doctors' Lunches

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 03 Aug 2006 - 16:00 PDT

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The Baltimore Sun on Saturday examined how buying lunch for physicians "became an increasingly important way for drug companies to get the attention of doctors" after 2002, when the pharmaceutical industry adopted voluntary guidelines to restrict gifting practices. According to the Sun, the American Medical Association "considers lunches acceptable because they represent a rare opportunity to present information about their products to busy doctors." Amy Kristjanson -- who used to work as a pharmaceutical representative but now owns Lunch and Earn, a marketing firm in Florida -- said there is no limit to the amount of lunches a pharmaceutical rep can buy. Some policymakers argue that the practice could have undue influence over doctors' prescribing decisions. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said, "It's obvious that drug companies provide these free lunches so their sales reps can get the doctor's ear and influence the prescribing practices." He added, "Physicians should get their information from peer-reviewed evidence and objective resources." Jos Zebley, a family physician at Greenspring Medical Associates, said, "The same way you don't buy a congressman with a dinner, you don't change a doctor's perspective with a lunch" (Salganik et al., Baltimore Sun, 7/29).

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