In a first for a major drug company, GlaxoSmithKline, the British pharma that was fined $3 billion for illegal marketing of Paxil and Wellbutrin, has said that by 2016 it will no longer pay doctors to promote its drugs and will stop tying sales representatives’ compensation to the number of prescriptions doctors write. GSK will also stop providing doctors with financial support to attend conferences.
That…is….wonderful. I’m sure its to protect their legal back, and to appear less tainted, but the end result is a good one and should be followed by all pharmaceutical manufacturers.
No more doctors getting paid to promote pharmaceuticals.
And now for the next big lion step. No more advertising pharmaceuticals. And then next, only neutral party double blind longitudinal studies of drugs. “Evidence” of drug efficacy by the company itself should be ignored. These neutral party studies can then be written up in medical journals without ties to big Pharma.
Good first step though.
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