New York – Two of the world's largest drug companies are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to doctors every year in return for giving their patients anemia medicines, which regulators now say may be unsafe at commonly used doses.
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Documents show that at just one practice in the Pacific Northwest, a group of six cancer doctors received $2.7 million from Amgen for prescribing $9 million worth of its drugs last year. The payments are legal, but there is a concern in the industry that the payments give physicians an incentive to prescribe the medicines at levels that might increase patients' risks of heart attacks or strokes.
The Food and Drug Administration released a report that suggested that anemia drug use might need to be curtailed in cancer patients, due to several studies that suggested that the drugs can shorten patients' lives when used at high doses.
Federal laws bar drug companies from paying doctors to prescribe medicines that are given in pill form and purchased by patients from pharmacies, but companies can rebate part of the price that doctors pay for drugs, like the anemia medicines, which they dispense in their offices as part of treatment. The anemia drugs are injected or given intravenously in physicians' offices or dialysis centers. [NY Times]
It amazes me how when a regular person sells stuff honestly all we hear is -network marketing, scam, mlm and alot of other not nice stuff without facts.
When a guy in a suit sells legal drugs we believe all the &(() coming out of the guys mouth.
I work in the medical system and it’s a shandeh with the way we are trying to be convinced about everyhting they say.
We are given FREE lunches, mugs, pens, pads, paper and whatnot and get sucked up in everything. I am to honest and everytime I refuse to give garbage to my patients I am threatened of being fired.
I refused a few years ago to give my patients vioxx because I saw from my own patients terible results and heart problems. I go by RESULTS not what a drug rep always has to say. I was critisized for the vioxx thing.
Now who looks like the genious?
All I am saying is try to be HONEST in everything and trust your gut feelings because it’s usually correct.
Drug companies emloy salespeople to peddle their wares and basically give compensation where due, ie: you give ’em to your patients, we’ll take care of you. An ailment taken care of by a drug, is just that, taken care of by a drug, and not addressed by its origin. That’s besides the side effects, etc. Ever read the fine print? It’s for real, all those side effects, because, again, these are DRUGS!!
Nu ? Vos Iz Neias ?
Mir daft Leben.