Ever wonder why your doctor follows the dispensing of any prescription medication by saying “Cha Ching” and then genuflecting in the direction of his Pfizer golf bag?
It could have something to do with the enormous amount of dough the big pharmaceutical companies spend on marketing to doctors and med schools.
Drug companies spend billions of dollars wooing doctors — more than they spend on research or consumer advertising. Much of this money is spent on giving doctors free drug samples, free food, free medical refresher courses and payments for marketing lectures.
Now several medical institutes are calling for these lobbying and marketing practices to stop and pushing Congress to enact laws that would force the drug companies to publicly disclose the payments they make to doctors. If you see something slighly laughable about politicians restricting the lobbying that goes on in another field, its probably just a side-effect of one of the generic drugs you’re taking.
