Big Pharma uses their own medical symposiums or reps to bypass institutions co-opt prescribers directly
Another way for Big Pharma to maintains their profit in the drug pipeline is to bypass the institutions altogether and co-opt the prescribers directly. In the past, to get their drug out into the world, drug companies would sponsor their own medical symposia—in places like Cancun or Hollywood or Maui—and would invite medical school faculty members to both talk and be talked to. Oh, and their wives’ expenses were paid as well.
Of course, these symposia got expensive, and by the 2000s, the American Medical Association was beginning to scrutinize this practice—so it began to fall on the Big Pharma detail reps in the field to do the massaging. They would show up to clinic every week without fail, lunch in tow, ostensibly to provide clerical assistance in filling out the paperwork to start a new patient on growth hormone.
References
- Lustig, Robert. (2021). Metabolical Chapter 6. Because Big Pharma Was Their Teacher (p. 122). New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.