Pharmaceutical Executive
How should drug companies and physicians interact? And if something is wrong with the relationship, who's to blame?
How should drug companies and physicians interact? And if something is wrong with the relationship, who's to blame?
Some of the best thinking I've seen on that important issue comes in the British Medical Journal, which devoted most of its May 31 issue to teasing out the complexities of how for-profit drug companies alter medicine's playing field. It's a project that could have fallen into pharma bashing-and some individual pieces come close. But it's saved by a willingness to look past the surface to figure out how the pharma-medical system really works and why.
"This relationship isn't a Manichean battle between good and evil," writes deputy editor Jane Smith, "but the entwinement of individuals from different backgrounds and value sets who get to know, and often to like each other and therefore want, as humans do, to reciprocate friendships and favors."
The contributors don't let pharma off the hook, but they generate some fascinating insights into how the world works-and how hard it is to fix:
The editors may have set out to critique pharma, but by refusing to settle for obvious answers they've begun to sketch the realities of an industry that mixes public and private interests in ever more complex ways. Anything that gives all the players a more realistic sense of what's wrong and how the pieces are connected serves us all.
Fierce Females in the Life Science Space
March 29th 2024In this week’s episode, in recognition of international women’s month, Editor Miranda Schmalfuhs has compiled audio clips from interviews with female KOLs that she's been fortunate enough to speak with over this past month for content across a few of our brands.