on the cover / By Heidi Walters

Care for an Éclair?

Actually, no, say some doctors to the tasty ploys of drug reps

(Jan. 31, 2008) Goodbye, sugarpie

About five or six years ago — he can’t quite remember when — Dr. Leo Leer and his colleagues at Eureka Family Practice turned a cold shoulder to the hordes of pharmaceutical company salespeople — drug reps — who hitherto had had free rein in their office.

Dr. Leo Leer of Eureka Family Practice. Photo by Heidi Walters.

GALLERY >

No longer could a well-heeled, uberfriendly, hypersmart, slick, sleek and quite often neighborly-faced instrument of Big Pharma come waltzing in like she (or he) owned the place and sail on down the hall until she bumped into a doctor. Nor could she ply the front desk with cookies, croissants and cappuccinos. Or scatter about handfuls of office supplies embossed with drug names and her company’s label. Or try to set up a “drug lunch” to talk about her company’s newest statin wonder drug, or a new procedure, or whatever. Or drop off an invitation to a fancy dinner to hear a well-known figure in the profession talk about her company’s latest new hope, say, for the depressed and anxious — well, the drug rep could mail the invite, but Leer, for his part, would toss it in the trash.

The family practice made one concession, although Leer fought vociferously against it: The reps could still bring in free drug samples.

“Before, the number of reps we used to see was in the teens, for sure, and each one would try to reach us once a month, at least,” said Leer on a recent weekday evening in his office on Harris Street after most of the staff had gone home. “They still come by. But we refuse to meet with them or see them or talk with them. And we decline any freebies [except the samples]. It annoys the heck out of them. They say, ‘Well, we can’t leave you samples,’ and we say, ‘OK.’” But those who still dare to come by end up leaving samples anyway.

Hold on — saying no to free goodies? Are these people crazy? Or some sort of pious upstarts trying to make everyone else look bad? Especially the food, which after all comes from local cafes and restaurants — what harm can a little edible do, in the big scheme of things?

Eye on Big Pharma

It’s not a new story. For decades people have pondered Big Pharma’s marketing ethics. Public Citizen — the group Ralph Nader started (but no longer is associated with) — has been harping on the industry for years now, digging up dirt on it and presenting such tools as the “Worst Pills, Best Pills: A Consumer’s Guide to Avoiding Drug-Induced Death or Illness” which reveals the less savory things that companies don’t advertise about some of their drugs. Former drugs reps have come clean and revealed the secrets of their profession. Journalists and doctors have written books and articles on the influence of gifting — the most touted among them pathologist Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.

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