MARCIA ANGELL, M.D.
Senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Social Medicine and former editor in chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, Marcia Angell is a nationally recognized
authority in the field of health policy and medical ethics, and an outspoken critic of the health-care system. Dr. Angell is the author of The Truth About the Drug Companies:
How they Deceive Us and What to Do About It and Science on Trial: The Clash of Medical Evidence and the Law in the Breast Implant Case.
GENE CARBONA
Gene Carbona is currently The Executive Director of Marketing and Sales for The Medical Letter, Inc., publishers of The Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics and Treatment Guidelines. Prior to joining The Medical Letter, he was employed by the world’s largest drug company, Merck & Co., Inc. His 12-year tenure as an industry insider informs his current responsibilities at The Medical Letter, as he now shares his personal accounts about the strong biases that exist within pharmaceutical promotion. His forthcoming book, Sex, Drugs and Quid Pro Quo, explores his perspective on the topic.
BOB GOODMAN, M.D.
Bob Goodman is a practicing general internist in New York City and on the faculty of the Department of Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. In
response to burgeoning promotional efforts by pharmaceutical companies, he established the non-profit No Free Lunch with the goal of encouraging evidence-based rather than
promotion-based health care delivery and providing a vehicle through which doctors can advertise their critical, clinical independence from drug companies.
KATHARINE GREIDER
Katharine Greider is the author of The Big Fix: How the Pharmaceutical Industry Rips Off American Consumers. Her work as a freelance writer has appeared in many publications, most recently the AARP Bulletin, The New York Times and American Legacy.
LARRY D. SASICH, PHARM.D., M.P.H., F.A.S.H.P.
Larry D. Sasich is Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at LECOM School of Pharmacy. Prior to this position, Dr. Sasich worked for 10 years as a research analyst at
Public Citizen’s Health Research Group in Washington, DC. His major responsibilities were related to issues involving the Food and Drug Administration, access to drug information for consumers, drug safety, and the cost of prescription drugs. He is the co-author of Worst Pills, Best Pills and the primary contributor to Worst Pills, Best Pills News, a newsletter
written for consumers about drug safety.
ELIZABETH PRESTON, PH.D.
Elizabeth Preston is the Department of Communication Chair at Westfield State College. She has taught a range of courses including Issues in Advertising, Media Criticism, and
Consumer Culture; her research areas also include direct-to-consumer marketing of pharmaceuticals, and general marketing to children.
Organizations and their Website Links
No Free Lunch: A non-profit organization whose mission is to encourage health care providers to practice medicine on the basis of scientific evidence rather than on the basis of pharmaceutical promotion.
Public Citizen Health Research Group: Promotes research-based, system-wide changes in health care policy and provides oversight concerning drugs, medical devices, doctors and hospitals and occupational health.
Consumer Reports: Consumer Reports is an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for consumer rights and empowerment. Consumers Reports now has a new online video series that tracks and reports on TV drug ads.
Consumers International: An independent non-profit organization that works for consumer rights and to hold corporations accountable, specifically in the areas of climate change, unethical drug promotion, sustainable coffee, and consumer protection.
Worst Pills, Best Pills: A searchable, online drug database that provides comprehensive information about 538 prescription drugs and warns of 181 drugs that are unsafe or ineffective. A project of Public Citizen HRG.
The Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics: An independent, peer-reviewed, nonprofit publication that offers unbiased critical evaluations of drugs, with special emphasis on new drugs, to physicians and other members of the health professions.
American Medical Student Association (AMSA) PharmFree Campaign: Aiming to revitalize professionalism in medical education – to teach medical students about the ethics of drug company interaction with health professionals and encourage them to make the rational, informed decision to eschew “free” gifts from the pharmaceutical industry.
The Prescription Access Litigation (PAL) Project: Works to make prescription drug prices more affordable for consumers, using class action litigation and public education.
IMS Health Top Line Industry Data: Statistics of current and past years’ topline US and global pharmaceutical trends. Key indicators include: leading companies, leading products, leading therapeutic classes, promotional spending, and leading channels of distribution – as measured by prescription sales and dispensing.
Recommended Reading:
· Angell, Marcia, THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DRUG COMPANIES: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It.
· Greider, Katharine, THE BIG FIX: How the Pharmaceutical Industry Rips Off American Consumers.
· Robinson, Jeffrey, PRESCRIPTION GAMES: Money, Ego, and Power Inside the Global Pharmaceutical Industry.
· Moynihan, Ray and Alan Cassels, SELLING SICKNESS: How the World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies are Turning us all Into Patients.
· Abramson, John, OVERDOSED AMERICA: The Broken Promise of American Medicine.
· Kassirer, Jerome, ON THE TAKE: How Medicine’s Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your Health.
· Avorn, Jerry, POWERFUL MEDICINES: The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription Drugs.
· Wolfe, Sidney, Larry Sasich, and Peter Lurie, WORST PILLS, BEST PILLS: A Consumer’s Guide to Avoiding Drug-Induced Death or Illness.
· Law, Jacky, BIG PHARMA: Exposing the Global Healthcare Agenda.
Recommended Documentaries and Films:
Dangerous Prescription Produced and directed by Andy Leibman; Aired on Frontline. More than a dozen dangerous drugs have been pulled off the market since 1997. Why were they approved in the first place? An Investigation of America’s drug safety system.
The Other Drug War Written, produced and directed by Jon Palfreman & Barbara Moran; Aired on Frontline. America’s war over prescription drugs has dragged on for nearly twenty years. Why are the drugs so expensive? And can prices be controlled without jeopardizing innovation?
Selling Sickness: An Ill for Every Pill Directed by Catherine Scott, Produced by Pat Fiske, Co-Written by Ray Moynihan, and Distributed by First Run Icarus Films. Selling Sickness exposes the unhealthy relationship between society, medical science and the pharmaceutical industry.
Sicko Directed by Michael Moore. In theatres now. Opening with profiles of several ordinary Americans whose lives have been disrupted, shattered, and—in some cases—ended by health care catastrophe, the film makes clear that the crisis doesn't only affect the 47 million uninsured citizens—millions of others who dutifully pay their premiums often get strangled by bureaucratic red tape as well.
Side Effects Written and directed by Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau. A coming of age comedy whose main character is a drug company sales rep, based on the director’s decade-long experiences employed by the pharmaceutical industry.
Articles:
The Drug Pushers, by Carl Elliott in The Atlantic Monthly.
Public Library of Science, Issue on Disease Mongering.
Reviews
NEW DOCUMENTARY TAKES THE LID OFF PILLBOX | M. Braunstein
Omaha Weekly Reader | June 20, 2007
