Health Education by Drug Companies

Most major pharmaceutical companies have realized that the old marketing methods are not doing the trick – or else they are being curtailed by the FDA and other watchdogs. So they are turning more and more to a well-tried approach: “an educated consumer is our best customer”, as Syms Clothing used to claim. At LifeIsWaiting.com the GSK company offers a sign-up for people with depression to obtain educational literature (access to 80 articles!), an informative detailed brochure, a personalized monitoring system, and a 30-day voucher for a long-acting medication.

MensFacts.com from Pfizer offers a kit that contains a brochure explaining how high blood pressure, diabetes, or raised cholesterol levels can lead to erectile dysfunction (ED), together with advice on how to discuss this with your doctor, and an invitation to participate in a free trial of a drug (guess whose!).

I’m all in favor of health education, obviously. But having it provided directly by pharmaceutical manufacturers is setting the fox to guard the henhouse. Any program offering health education that includes a section promoting a specific drug (rather than an unbiased listing a range of drugs available for the condition concerned) is, to my mind, an unreliable source of information.