freebies

The Journal of Medical Ethics published a study on clinical ethics a couple years ago that revealed many doctors don’t see a problem with accepting free drug samples from pharmaceutical representatives. According to the article, “Most respondents (doctors) thought it proper to accept drug samples (92%)… A third (33%) of the respondents thought that their own decision to prescribe a drug would probably be influenced by accepting drug samples…Respondents who distributed drug samples to patients indicated doing so because of patients’ financial need (94%) and their convenience (76%) and less so as a result of knowledge of the efficacy of the sample product (63%)… The full article is available at http://jme.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/32/10/559.

A little more recently, the American Osteopathic Association submitted a resolution to the Committee on Health Related Policies encouraging the distribution of free drugs samples. The resolution states, “WHEREAS, free samples of prescription drugs help patients who lack insurance coverage for medications or those who cannot afford medications and also help physicians determine whether a drug is appropriate for a patient before purchasing a prescription; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, that the American Osteopathic Association encourages the pharmaceutical industry to continue the distribution of drug samples…” A PDF of the resolution can be found here: https://do-online.org/pdf/cal_hod06res204.pdf

An article written by Dr. Art Hister for MediResources’ Senior’s Health column echoed these beliefs about free drug samples. He wrote, “handing out free samples has at least one major benefit: it often does save patients money. In the free clinic where I used to practice, for example, the samples – birth control pills, antibiotics, etc. – were lifelines for some of our patients. But more important, I think, is that handing out samples rarely causes harm…” He also points out that while doctors my favor samples over another drug, it usually makes little difference. “Because, most new drugs are “me-too” products developed with only one goal in mind: to compete with a successfully marketed rival.” Read the full article here: http://chealth.canoe.ca/channel_section_details.asp?text_id=2022&channel_id=10&relation_id=3883

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