Ethics and the Pharmaceutical Industry

Ethical concerns in the pharmaceutical industry are well documented, according to MedscapeCME. Physicians receive free products from pharmaceutical companies and can potentially make prescription decisions based on loyalties to a company or information supplied by a company that may not be entirely accurate. Ethical problems arise if physicians' ties to pharmaceutical companies outweigh their regard for the best interests of patients.

Studies Confirm Influence

• Scientific and psychiatric literature confirms that pharmaceutical industry-physician relationships often have resulted in over-prescribing of the drugs pharmaceutical representatives have promoted. A study done at McGrill University found that physicians were often unable to distinguish between pharmaceutical rhetoric and fact during the promotions of a drug, according to MedscapeCME.

Money

• According to HealthMad, pharmaceutical companies spent more than fifty-seven billion dollars on promotions in 2008. With that amount of money being poured into hiring researchers and doctors to conduct clinical tests and developing new drugs, it's important that there be ethical checks and balances that keep the results of trials from being skewed.

Research and Development

• Another concern is that the pharmaceutical companies fund research for medications that they will ultimately market and sell. Companies whose sole purpose is to create a marketable product could leave out pertinent information during trials, which would damage the drug's reputation upon release.

Pharmaceutical Industry Relations Committee

• To address the issue of ethics in patient care, the Pharmaceutical Industry Relations Committee was created by McGrill University's Department of Psychology. The intention of the committee isn't to regulate the pharmaceutical industry but to improve the ethics of communication between companies and physicians.

Guidelines for Physicians

• Physicians have an obligation to prescribe medications that have been approved and tested by the FDA. The Pharmaceutical Industry Relations Committee also proposes that physicians avoid seeing pharmaceutical representatives and be more proactive with the ones they do see. They should also weigh the benefits and risks of new drugs from multiple sources of information. Physicians are discouraged from attending presentations that don't qualify for continuing education credits. Adoption of this code of ethics is obviously a voluntary matter, but the purpose of it is to raise awareness about potential pitfalls.