September 11, 2007

"We're from academia, and we're here to help you." No, I am not kidding. News reports yesterday inform us that "academic detailers" have begun visits to doctors' offices for the purpose of countering the information and goodies offered by pharmaceutical firms in efforts to expand the market for their medicines.

The "academics," by the way, actually are pharmacists and nurses, but never mind. The brainchild of this mindless scheme is Jerry Avorn, a professor at the Harvard Medical School and "drug-safety expert," who claims to know that the prescribing habits of physicians are influenced negatively by the blandishments of the drug companies, and that his army of academics or pharmacists and nurses---take your pick---will provide doctors with "nonindustry-based information about the benefits, risks, and costs of various treatments."

Precisely how does the good professor know that physicians are influenced in unproductive ways by those nefarious drug producers? Sorry: That's top secret. How do the blandishments of the drug company representatives get around FDA regulations about what can be claimed about a given drug? Ditto. What is the source of the "nonindustry-based" propaganda, oops, information to be flaunted by the academics? Since they are very unlikely to have conducted their own Phase I, II, and III testing protocols---trust me on this one, Jerry, your people cannot afford them---that too remains entirely obscure.

No, my friends, this effort to provide "objective" information to doctors is a rather obvious ideological campaign to delegitimize the provision of information by the private sector instead of government bureaucrats. Would Professor Avorn welcome into his classrooms individuals pointing out his own biases and errors? The question answers itself.

Posted by Benjamin Zycher at September 11, 2007 11:24 AM

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