 |
|
Is Pharmaceutical Marketing Valuable?
M. Lee Chambliss, MD
University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine Columbia, Mo
Arch Fam Med. 1994;3(12):1032-1033.
|
|
| Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings. |
|
|
|
In his recent article, Levy1 greatly overestimates the informational value of pharmaceutical marketing. He also overestimates the difficulty that physicians have in obtaining drug information from nonpharmaceutical sources.
He states that "direct access to the medical literature is difficult and time-consuming for practicing physicians." He also asserts that information other than pharmaceutical marketing "must be measured against the present system in terms of scope, objectivity, timeliness of information, effectiveness of communication, and cost."
I would argue that commonly available, familiar non-pharmaceutical drug references such as The Medical Letter, Drug Facts and Comparisons and Drug Evaluations Annual2 are much better resources than pharmaceutical marketing information. In terms of scope, these resources give physicians access to much more information than do pharmaceutical advertisements or sales representatives, especially about medications not actively being promoted by pharmaceutical companies. These resources are certainly more objective than pharmaceutical marketing sources about the relative value and safety of drugs.
. . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]
|
