CALPIRG Blog

Everyone who's had to fill a prescription knows that the cost of drugs can be through the roof.  And while there are a number of reasons for the high prices, some are legitimate while others clearly aren't.  Drug companies spend about $30 billion dollars a year on researching new drugs -- so far so good.  But they also spend about the same amount of money on marketing and advertising their products.  

The fact that research and promotion are apparently equally important to drug companies should raise some eyebrows, but it's the details of that marketing budget that really drive home the problem.  Pharmaceutical company marketing practices include the now-familiar direct-to-consumer TV and print ads for new drugs (which often don't tell the whole truth; in fact Pfizer recently announced that it is pulling its ads for Lipitor after they were critized for being misleading), but also marketing efforts aimed squarely at doctors.

Pharma lavishes gifts, meals, and travel on doctors in an attempt to woo them to the latest, most expensive drugs.  More insidious than these flat-out gifts, however, are drug makers' attempts to promote their products via "educational grants" and paying for continuing medical education seminars -- which doctors must attend to keep their licenses to practice.  Laws prevent the drug companies from using these events to peddle their wares, at least in theory, but in practice the line gets crossed.  It's an understudied problem that can have real bad effects.

Fortunately, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), of the Senate Finance Committee, is putting pressure on drug companies to disclose their spending on "medical education."   The more we know about the scope of the problem, the better -- this is a first step that will hopefully help the public know more about what the drug companies are up to.  This information will help our work to make sure doctors prescribe medicine based on science, not marketing bamboozlement.