John Oliver came back on air on Sunday, focusing one of his trademark monlogues on drug companies’ lobbying blitz against America’s doctors.
According to the host of “Last Week Tonight,” drug companies spend roughly $24 billion on marketing directly to doctors, six times more than they spend pitching to consumers.
“One analysis claimed that in 2013, nine out of the top ten drug makers spent more on marketing than they did on research,” Oliver said.
“Drug companies are a bit like high school boyfriends,” he said. “They’re much more concerned with getting inside you than being effective once they’re in there.”
Later in the segment, Oliver focused on some of the perks doctors get through being courted by drug reps looking to hook hospitals on their products.
“Free lunch, every day,” Oliver said, giving an example of what drug reps bring to doctors. “Now, that might not seem like a big deal, but think about it: Lunch, is awesome.”
“If Charlie Manson brought me a free lunch every day, I’d at least listen to his sales pitch on forehead swastikas.”
Watch the clip, courtesy of HBO:
excellent comparison.
Good bit, but he could have given us more fan service, to wit
For seven months in the late '90s I was an associate project director for a “medical communications company” in NYC. Essentially, this company was a marketing/PR firm for the pharmaceutical industry.
So if, for instance, a company wanted to promote an off-label use for one of its drugs, my job was to set up a “symposium.” I’d invite a number of doctors (from a list that was unofficially OK’d–and often created–by the pharma company), discuss the general idea of the symposium, and arrange for their travel, accommodations, and “honoraria.” We’d all meet at a fancy hotel. These docs would each give a talk about their experience with the drug, and then have a discussion. Of course, the talks and discussion went into depth about the benefits of the drug’s uses, including, especially, its off-label uses. The transcript would be turned into an article for a journal the medical communications company published, and of course used to bolster the argument for the off-label use’s approval.
These symposia were always attended by a rep from the drug company. He/she never spoke directly to the doctors.
Some doctors had a sort of road show they could tweak on short notice to say pretty much whatever you wanted them to say. Others actually asked, “What do you want me to say?” Some haggled about their honoraria. I didn’t like a single one I met.
I was fired after seven months. The steak houses and fancy hotels were sweet, but I had too many problems with the way these things were done, and consequently, certainly wasn’t a good “fit.” Some of the things I witnessed in my short time there just blew my mind, especially the clinical-trial administration part. These were New York yuppies looking to go public. How they did it and why really did not matter.
This was 20 years ago. It’s pretty clear things haven’t gotten better in the interim.
In case you missed it, the site JO is referring to is openpaymentsdata.cms.gov. You put in the name of a doctor, and the state.