She Doth Protest Too Much

Here's a fascinatingly transparent display of spin-doctoring from Pharma. This comes from one of the senior vice-presidents who was asked during a recent press conference about the new industry code prohibiting trinkets with logos on them:

“We have never said and would never say that a pharmaceutical pen or notebook has influenced any prescription,” Ms. Bieri said.

Really? You spent $6 billion on these trinkets without thinking they would influence ANY prescription?

I think she goes too far. Everyone knows that drug companies want doctors to prescribe their products, and that's no secret. The ultimate goal of the tens of billions spent on marketing every year is, despite what Ms. Bieri says, to in some way 'influence prescriptions'.

The point of marketing, in any business, is to increase sales. And in the pharmaceutical business, sales can only be increased by way of doctors' prescriptions. So yes, all those pens were meant to influence prescriptions. But that's not such a surprise.

I'm more surprised, in fact, that PhRMA felt the need to so strenuously deny this somewhat ordinary truth.

The drug companies will market to us in every way we let them. So let's choose how we let them do it, and not just allow them to decide.