Pharmaceutical Industry Contracts Would Bar Physicians from Criticizing Medications

(via Lying Media Bastards) 

if the Minnesota Multi-State Contracting Alliance for Pharmacy bought huge amounts of anti-depressant Cymbalta from the Eli Lily company, they would receive a 5% discount, so long as their physicians agreed not to:

  • point out when doctors were prescribing Cymbalta inappropriately
  • point out that their institution seemed to be overprescribing Cymbalta
  • describe side effects caused by Cymbalta without also mentioning the benefits of Cymbalta
  • point out that other drugs might be cheaper than Cymbalta
  • poke holes in Eli Lily’s claims about Cymbalta

Filed under Business

Posted by Andy on Aug 08 2005 at 07:30pm. Permanent link to this post.

Comments

  1. Paul
    Posted Aug 08 2005 at 09:10pm | Permalink

    Yeah the pharmaceutical companies will do anything to protect their business, they play pretty dirty too!

  2. Lisa
    Posted Aug 10 2005 at 06:14am | Permalink

    This makes me feel as sick as I did when the pharmaceutical companies started advertising on tv. You can bet despite my extreme nausea that I did NOT “ask my doctor” for any prescription medications to eliminate my discomfort.