Healthy Skepticism Library item: 3403

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Doctors and the drug industry [Editor's response to 3rd letter (O'Dowd & Whibley)]
British Medical Journal 1986 Nov 1; 293:1171

Abstract:

The report by the Royal College of Physicians on relations between doctors and the pharmaceutical industry reflected public and professional concern about some of the alleged abuses. Advertising in journals was not one of them. The crucial question, said Dr Richard Smith, was whether a doctor would be willing to have people know about the gifts, hospitality, and expenses he had been given. Advertising by the industry is open to the public gaze, and the BMJ is not ashamed of the advertisements it carries. These have to conform to the government’s regulations and may be rejected if the claims made conflict with our own code of practice. [full text]

Keywords:
*letter to the editor/United Kingdom/