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People from outside the industry might be envious of those responsible for promoting prescription pharmaceuticals: there are honorable products, societal benefits, hefty budgets, defined audiences, interesting media choices. It sure beats advertising deodorants.
But the envious might think again if they had to endure the watchdogs that snarl at health-care marketers from several sides. Consider that in the space of a few weeks:
* The America Medical Association declared that it is unethical for doctors to accept certain gifts and other favors from drug manufacturers.
* The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association formally endorsed the AMA position and adopted the guidelines as part of its Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices.
* Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Labor and Human Resources Committee, held a hearing on drug marketing practices, with emphasis on the use of financial incentives by pharmaceutical companies.
* The new FDA Commissioner, David A. Kessler, M.D., J.D., took the helm, and his administration straightaway suggested that criminal procedures, not the civil actions of the past, would be used against companies that were egregiously violative of the regulations.
A high FDA official publicly promised the industry "the regulatory equivalent of a body check" to make it pay attention.
Although these were separate actions, collectively they add up to a far tougher regulatory climate for drug manufacturers and their promotional teams. To help our readers recalibrate their compasses for navigating in this repressive new atmosphere, MM&M asked members of its editorial advisory board, representing the manufacturing, advertising, consulting, and media ends of the business, to give us their assessments.
A consensus answer to the question of how tightened rules and sterner attitudes will affect the companies is that those who have kept clean noses in the past will not have to make radical changes in the way they advertise and promote their products -- but even the purest of the pure will be reassessing some of the hitherto standard practices, such as paying physicians honoraria for attending dinner meetings. Speaking of the FDA regs, Roger Green, a consultant to the industry, points out that "people in the industry know what the regulations are. Those who know they have been on the right side of the line will be OK. Those who have pushed...