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Lou Gelfand: Drugmakers' rules on ethics are a placebo, not a cure
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America's major pharmaceutical manufacturers, their images long associated with swollen profits and sophisticated congressional lobbying, this month announced new ethical guidelines effective in 2009.
The suspense was overwhelming. Would they no longer underwrite a physician's jaunt to a warm winter resort so he or she could address peers on the wonders of a new drug?
Would consulting arrangements with physicians that could warp their independence in judging drugs be abandoned?
Would guidelines apply to medical device makers?
Answers: No, no and no.
Not that the guidelines weren't sweeping. No more, announced the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, would its members give doctors coffee mugs, Post-it Notes and similar treasures.
Think of what that will save Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson, to name but two members of the industry group. Maybe 1 or 2 percent of a board chairman's bonus.
The announcement made no mention of what for years has been the drug companies' most lucrative way of compromising doctors: speaking and consulting fees.
The announcement did state that "meetings between sales representatives and doctors should be focused on informing health care professionals about products, sharing scientific and educational information and supporting research and education."
But there's no mention of enforcement, or sanctions.
As for feeding physicians and their staffs during the workday, the new policy states that company salespeople are prohibited from providing restaurant meals and entertainment or recreation, but later it says that "sales reps are still permitted to bring meals occasionally if they are small and not part of an entertainment or recreational event."
The administrative wonks responsible for the new guidelines may have come up with a harmless placebo in lieu of any actual reform.
Real change, however, requires bitter medicine -- something the drug companies are in no mood to swallow.
Lou Gelfand • lgelfand@startribune.com
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