Drug Companies – Peddling Influence?

I know several smart attractive pharmaceutical reps who spend their days trying to get meetings with doctors so they can sell them on their companies latest drugs.  The home run is getting a doc to go to lunch and this is why. A new study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association says even the smallest incentives from drug companies can have an effect on doctors. They reviewed data on four popular prescription drugs --Crestor, Bystolic, Benicar and Pristiq-- from just under 280-thousand physicians nationwide and found physicians who accept even one meal sponsored by a drug company were found to be more likely to prescribe a name-brand drug to patients.

NBC News says doctors who received four or more meals (worth $20 or less) relating to the four drugs prescribed Crestor nearly twice as often as doctors who didn't get the free meals; Bystolic more than five times as often, Benicar more than four times as often and Pristig 3.4 times as often.

Even one meal where a drug was discussed led to higher prescription rates, and the study says "the relationship was dose dependent." That means the more meals doctors accepted and the higher the cost of those meals, the greater the increase in prescribing the drug being promoted.