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Article: Freemarket freebies: drug companies make the sweetest of overtures to health practitioners. Tamar Wilner takes a critical look at this love-in.(Bribery)
- Article from:
- New Internationalist
- Article date:
- November 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 New Internationalist Magazine. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WHEN a new brand of insulin hit the market in India recently, doctors were quick to switch patients to it. Not long afterwards the new drug's manufacturer took 15 physicians from Nagpur on a vacation with their families. Coincidence? Maybe so but 'patients were fine on the old drug,' says Vijay Thawani, Associate Professor in Pharmacology at the Government Medical College in Nagpur.
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Such promotional excesses abound in developing nations which have been slow to adopt regulations and even slower to enforce them. The US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand/Aotearoa have over time adopted and revised codes on drug promotion. But ...