Solutions

Solutions to the problems created by drug marketing are possible on several levels.

First, sales representatives could more objectively promote their product if they were more informed about the product's positive and negative aspects. For example, their training courses could be organized and conducted by a disinterested outside party, rather than the pharmaceutical company they work for.

Second, a doctor's primary allegiance should be to the patient, and not to the pharmaceutical company which provides him or her with potentially biased information, no matter what incentives are provided by the pharmaceuticals. Doctors can exercise control over marketing that disproportionately emphasizes a drug's positive aspects by complaining to the company about the claims of a sales representative.

Furthermore, researchers who evaluate the efficacy and safety of pharmaceuticals should not receive funding by the company that produced the drug, but rather from government and research foundations. These more objective sources of funding can increase the capabilities of researchers to remain employed while still subjecting their work to the appropriate scientific rigor.

Finally, patients may exercise control over their own health by looking beyond the pharmaceutical industries' ads when considering whether to undergo a serious prescription drug treatment. One important source of information is a strong doctor-patient relationship that promotes informed discussion. There are also a number of consumer groups that produce resources specifically targeted at helping patients make important health decisions. Links to some of these resources are included below.

Links:

Healthfinder : searchable consumer health site providing links to hundreds of other health-related websites

Consumer Info from the Food and Drug Administration: provides information about basic medications recently approved by the FDA

Healthmatters: independent quarterly magazine about health politics and policy

Drug InfoNet: can search for information about prescription drugs by brand name, generic name, or manufacturer