Pharma-funded education is a contradiction in terms

Physicians and Pharma aren't partners. Physicians are responsible for representing the best interests of their patients while pharmaceutical companies are responsible for representing the best interests of their stockholders. Pharma-funded 'education' always contains marketing messages, and they are often quite subtle. Industry-paid Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) may not be aware of the marketing messages they are responsible for disseminating. KOLS are responsible for selling disease states, not drugs, and they are selected for their ability to persuade physicians that a condition is more common or more serious than audiences previously believed.

Pharmaceutical companies affect most sources of information about drugs upon which physicians and other prescribers rely. Doubters should take PharmedOut's free, publicly funded CME course, "The Pharmalyzer: Are You Prescribing Under the Influence?", available (along with many other resources) at http://pharmedout.org.

Competing interests declared: I direct PharmedOut.org, an organization that educates physicians about inappropriate industry influence on prescribing. PharmedOut was founded with funds from the Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Grant program. I have been a paid expert witness on behalf of plaintiffs in litigation regarding pharmaceutical marketing practices.