I’ve Got Some Candy Just for You
Aug 19 2008 | Comments 3
As usual, Philip Dawdy breezes through the Eli Lilly hijinks in his chipper way over at Furious Seasons. By far the funniest detail (funny in a macabre sense, that is) is that Big Pharma reps brought Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups to doctors they wanted to talk to — and it worked to get them in the door.
You know what this tells me? Doctors are as bad as journalists when it comes to swag. It’s so ridiculous.
liz | 10:53 AM | Uncategorized
It’s not just psychiatrists. When I was working in the prison system, the drug reps would often come in for information sessions and they always made sure these events were catered (Chinese food is the way to any health professional’s heart).
It is always interesting to see the pharma reps at the community mental health centers. These paragons of health and enthusiasm stand out. They often tote a bag(s) of goodies from Panera (or some other eatery) for the staff. For those of us who actually take the medications they tout, there is nothing except for a view of “demand push” marketing in a public mental health system which represents itself as consumer driven.
If the pharma companies or their dealers were really at all interested in the well-being of the patients who take their products, I think they’d occasionally share some of the swag with them as well. I think the people who are patients at mental health centers and other such places would derive at least as much benefit from catered meals as the employees of those places. Their spirits are at least as much in need of being lifted as are those of the doctors and their staffs, don’t you think?
Reply: