This is not meant to be anti-doctor. Some of my best
friends are M.D.s, but as a nurse I see it all the
time. Not just key-rings, pens, and clip-boards, but
free seminars, free CEUs, even free trips to those
seminars...they do love to bedazzle the docs, and
promote their product, of course.   Carole H.

--- judith richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>  29 July 1999
> Drug firms go all out to dazzle doctors
>
> Pamela Fayerman, Sun Health Issues Reporter
> Vancouver Sun
>
> Pharmaceutical companies trying to sell doctors
> drugs to prescribe now
> employ almost as much technology in their pitch as
> they do in
> researching their remedies.
>
> The 2,400 brain surgeons and neurologists who
> gathered in Vancouver this
> week to exchange information at the 13th
> International Congress on
> Parkinson's Disease were offered the usual trinkets
> -- pens and scissors
> emblazoned with drug firms' names, key chain
> currency-exchange
> calculators, hand-held brain teaser games, T-shirts,
> sweaters and
> briefcases.
>
> They swarmed the booths handing out the freebies --
> after all, you don't
> have to be a brain surgeon to recognize free stuff
> when you see it.
>
> But in an era in which there are now dozens of drugs
> for Parkinson's,
> resulting in nearly two million prescriptions worth
> $70 million for
> sufferers in Canada alone each year, drug companies
> have to be creative
> in persuading doctors to consider their drugs.
>
> The task is made more difficult by the fact that
> there is just one
> meeting of this magnitude every other year for the
> World Federation of
> Neurology.
>
> One company, SmithKline Beecham, offered a variety
> of free items.
>
> The company markets a new drug called ReQuip and
> went so far as to call
> it "revolutionary" because it reduces the side
> effects associated with
> levdopa, the standard therapy for Parkinson's.
>
> But in addition to the freebies, SmithKline Beecham
> was using the latest
> in high technology to give doctors a chance to
> experience the jerky,
> involuntary movements Parkinson's patients must deal
> with.
>
> A digital media company created a virtual reality
> simulation model in
> which the user had to try to pour water from a tea
> kettle into a cup
> while holding a handle that mimicked the dyskinesia
> Parkinson's
> sufferers get when taking levdopa.
>
> Andrew Boston, product manager for ReQuip in Canada,
> said the splashy
> booth set up by SmithKline at the meeting that ended
> Wednesday was meant
> to grab the attention of doctors.
>
> "For the majority of products, it takes about 10
> years to get a good
> foothold, so it's a challenge because our drug has
> only been available
> for two years and doctors' prescribing habits are
> pretty entrenched," he
> said.
>
> The credit for the most unique and extravagant booth
> had to go to DuPont
> Pharma, which markets a drug called Sinemat CR and
> pulled out all the
> stops in attracting delegates' attention by
> constructing a three-room
> house, the cost of which it would not disclose.
>
> Doctors could experience some of the same problems
> of their patients in
> the house. They could stand on a wobbly kitchen
> floor to get the feeling
> of gait instability. They could sit in a vibrating
> living room armchair
> to understand what it feels like to experience
> resting tremors.
>
> Then, with magnets placed under their feet while
> standing on a special
> floor, they could relate to how it feels when
> Parkinson's patients
> freeze even when they're trying to move.
>
> http://www.vancouversun.com/
> --
> Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
> [log in to unmask]
>                           ^^^^
>                            \ /
>                          \  |  /   Today’s Research
>                          \\ | //
> ...Tomorrow’s Cure
>                           \ | /
>                            \|/
>                           `````
>


_____________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Free instant messaging and more at http://messenger.yahoo.com