Medical Product Marketing Unduly Influences Physicians’ Prescribing with Patient Harm Resulting

• • “The systematic review of the medical literature on gifting by Wazana found that an overwhelming majority of interactions had negative results on clinical care” (Brennan et al. 2006).
• • “There is a fairly extensive accumulated database tending to show that the relationships that have grown up between physicians and drug reps in the past sixty years have deleterious consequences” (Brody 2007: 195).
• • “But conflicts of interest (COIs) at both the individual and institutional levels can have a negative effect beyond higher drug prices. This includes influences on physicians that can lead to negative patient implications, including (1) incorrect drug claims and uses; (2) formulary requests for medications with no significant advantage over existing medication; (3) irrational prescribing; (4) fewer prescribed generics; and (5) compromising integrity in clinical decision making that can lead to patient safety issues” (Mackey and Liang 2013) (my emphases).