Secrets of the City

But how am I going to augment my already decent income now? Wahhhhhhh! I want my free ‘consulting’ trips to the bahamas and house full of levitra swag.

Screw you, Minnesota, I’m moving to California to do plastic surgery!

I hate to get all supply side trickle-down economics on you (I’ll wait for Maz, Bobby, bud et al to come to my aid..oy vey) but this does not bode well for the Insurance-Pharma-Med-Tech industries in MN.

While it sucks that this sort of underhanded funding drives up our medical & insurance costs, would it kill us to be behind the curve state-wise in enacting legislation that scales back one of our most vital regional wealth drivers and job providers?

It might not kill you personally, unless you were prescribed an inappropriate drug from a Dr. who was “educated” by a pharm company.

(This rarely happens. But the economics we’re talking about here does push us in that direction.)

I generally go to the street for my pharma kicks, so there’s no real change for me.

unless you were prescribed an inappropriate drug from a Dr. who was “educated” by a pharm company

Disclaimer: I work for a pharma company. I also try to stay out of the sales/marketing stuff. Makes me feel bad. I earn my keep putting the product out the door.

I won’t deny that pharma companies pay consulting fees to doctors to say nice things. But there are plenty of cases of doctors taking matters into their own hands and publishing “informational material” that looks suspiciously like a journal but isn’t, without the approval (or knowledge, often times) of the pharma company they have a relationship with. Is this pharma company just looking the other way? Possibly.

That said, there are a helluva lot of doctors who don’t do their due diligence in learning about these drugs before they hand them out, even if they’re being wined and dined strictly for the purpose of doing so. There are even more that will knowingly prescribe a drug for an off-label indication. The pharma company can’t do anything about that.

In the same vein, I work for a food company and kind of hate the way we make processed garbage that has none of the real food left in it, just to save pennies on the pound.

But that part’s not my job and I couldn’t help it if it were anyway.

In the same vein, I work for a food company and kind of hate the way we make processed garbage that has none of the real food left in it, just to save pennies on the pound.

I did, too. And what pisses me off even more is that Marketing trumps R&D every fucking time. So even if folks who are in a position to come up with something better can do so, if it’s not insanely cheap or if they can’t figure out how to sell it, it gets killed. The folks doing in-house higher level, long range research (often collaborating with the U) continually got their budget slashed and might even be phased out by now.

Don’t even get me started on the “organic” claims and the “whole grain” claims and “milk” in milk-and-cereal bars.

That’s a little off-topic, sorry.

Yes, exactly. I love how there are federally regulated minimums for the actual amount of ____ something has to contain to call it ____, and food companies skirt that edge whenever possible.

The marketing thing is really starting to infurate me too. Why the fuck do those people make so much money? We’re working on shoestring budgets on potentially huge research, but constantly have to justify the existence of our program (to the point where we spend as much time justifying it as we do getting any work done). Nobody makes the marketing dept jump through a bunch of hoops when they want to blow a shit-ton of money on some ridiculous shit.

Plus they don’t see fit to pay me a respectable salary for the kind of work I do. They seriously pay the summer interns better than they pay me. Fuck that.

“But research shows that doctors who have close relationships with drug makers tend to prescribe more, newer and pricier drugs  whether or not they are in the best interests of patients.“

Docs with close relationships with drug makers are more educated about current developments and advancements in drugs and treatment regimens. Yeah, they tend to make use of the newer, better stuff – thank goodness – but this last line about “whether or not they are in the best interests of patients” seems like a complete throwaway, with no support for it in the article. Of course the manufacturers are in there talking about their own products – but the increased knowledge allows the doc, if she’s so inclined, to then look more – and more knowingly – at alternatives – something she probably couldn’t do without the basic updating and continuing ed by the manufacturer.

Evil pharmcos are advertising!! Well, so are grocery stores, and colleges, and Greenpeace. Personally, I find it much more troubling the amount of time farm lobbyists spend in politicians’ offices.

Wayne, it’s really simple. The marketing departments can point to metric after metric showing just how much they helped the company rake in. On a balance sheet, however, research is a bottomless pit.

Now every time you buy one of those non-subscription or subscription medical bottles at your local moms and pops wallgreen stores, always find the name “Made in Rochester,” on the back of those bottles as a way for Minnesota made products etc.