Medical Societies Blatantly Court Big Pharma for Big Bucks

The line between Big Pharma and medical societies is so blurred that it's nonexistent. There isn't a hint of discretion in courting device makers and pharmaceuticals for product placements and ads at their conventions.

by Heidi Stevenson

7 May 2011

The American Medical Association (AMA) is wealthy. The reason is simple: Huge sums are received from pharmaceutical and medical appliance manufacturers (Big Pharma) in advertisements and product placements. Many medical organizations not only accept, but often blatantly pitch Big Pharma for ad placements at their seminars and conventions. Operating officers become quite wealthy. The line between industry and medical practice is blurred to the point of invisibility.

Heart Rhythm Society Sell-Out

Pro Publica recently focused on a meeting of the Heart Rhythm Society in an exposé of the cozy relationship between Big Pharma and medical societies. They describe a constant barrage of pitches to cardiologists for products. Every hotel room key card plugs St. Jude Memorial. Medtronic's ads are emblazoned on buses, banners in the convention facilties, and even under the doctors' feet as they walk up the stairs. Carpets, cellphone charging stations, even shuttle bus headrests are covered with logos and ads. The bedside tables in docs' rooms advertise the drug Multaq. Coffee cup sleeves display ads. Virtually every surface in and around the Heart Rhythm Association's convention is splashed with Big Pharma ads.

That doesn't include the advertising booths set up by companies like Medtronic, Boston Scientific, and St. Jude Medical. They can be the size of mansions. At last year's meeting, Medtronic spent $543,000 on their booth, and this year they have 12,000 square feet of space for product demonstrations. Boston Scientific's booth was 8,100 square feet this year.

To get to any real information, convention attendees are forced to walk through the advertising glitz. The director of cardiac electrophysiology at the Department of Veterans Affairs East Colorado Health Care System, Dr. Paul D. Varosy, stated, "It’s very hard to get through there without being accosted."

Every possible space for an ad has been sold—yet the Heart Rhythm Association has the audacity to claim that all that money doesn't buy influence. They don't, of course, explain why Big Pharma is so willing to hand over all that money to them. But making sense apparently isn't their concern. Making money is.

And none of that touches on the fact that personal information, including tracking devices incorporated in attendees' ID badges, is also sold to Big Pharma! The information sold includes name, job titles, and real-time data of which booths were visited, when they were visited, and how much money was spent.

Making money is such a big concern that they don't wait for the advertisers to come to them. The Heart Rhythm Society actively sold out to Big Pharma. They went to the corporations and offered their annual convention as an ad pit. They push the convention for its "promotional opportunities".

The Heart Rhythm Society's (HRS) incoming president, Dr. Bruce Wilkoff, stated:

This is our business. We either get out of the business or we manage these relationships. That's what we've chosen to do.

How's that for doublespeak? It isn't selling out. It's managing relationships!

The HRS's new president sees their business as selling ads to its members, the doctors who will use these products on their patients. They'll use them because they're the products they've become familiar with.

But, the influence of the advertisers is even more insidious than outright ads. They also pay board members directly. Twelve of the 18 board members are paid for sitting on Big Pharma boards of directors, acting as advisors and speakers, and taking money for drug and medical appliance trials. Only two HRS board member have no association with any of the Big Pharma corporations.

Sixteen of the eighteen HRS board members are associated with the corporations that give HRS money for advertising!

But HRS is not unique, except in being relatively forthcoming about it. This sort of practice is commonplace.

Blurring the Lines Between Industry and Medical Practice

In association with Daiichi, a major Japanese-based pharmaceutical corporation, the American Society of Hypertension (ASH) set up a a drug company sales representatives program for doctors. They have graduated about 1,200 reps for Daiichi products. The cost per so-called student is $1,990, for a total of $2,388,000. For that money, Daiichi has drug reps who are certified by ASH, allowing the doctors to put the ASH Accreditation symbol on their business cards. Michael Alderman, former ASH president and professor emeritus at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, is incensed:

I think it’s an obscenity. I can see how it would play out in the doctor's office: 'I'm a Daiichi sales rep. But let me tell you something: The American Society of Hypertension is backing me.

Alderman, along with others, resigned from ASH over Big Pharma influence—but that apparently has made no difference. The selling out of ASH, and other medical societies, has only accelerated since then.

The current president of ASH, George Bakris, claims that the Daiichi program is "science based" and doesn't focus on specific drugs. Yeah—and Daiichi is paying all that money for altrustic reasons.

Excuses

Apologists for these sell-outs claim that it's necessary. They say it subsidizes the cost of continuing medical education, reduces the costs of conferences, and helps promote disease awareness programs.

It's already been well documented that Big Pharma-supported continuing medical education exists to promote Big Pharma's products. Little, if any, education goes on. If conferences are costly, then it's because doctors are being coddled with luxuries unrelated to them—especially in light of the fact that speakers are generally quite pleased with the offers to speak; getting paid for speaking is hardly on their agenda, as they're generally selling the products of their employers.

Disease awareness programs? Who benefits from them? When people are ill, they generally know it. So-called disease awareness programs exist primarily for the benefit of the medical profession—to convince people that they're sick—to bring in more and more patients.

Clearly, most medical societies exist for reasons unrelated to their charters. The don't promote genuine information for their members to help patients. Instead, they exist primarily to rake in lucre for those who run the organizations. Those who depend on them for information, their members? If they aren't aware that most of the information they're receiving is based on who paid the most to get it to them, then how can they possibly be qualified to treat their patients?

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