Who pays for the pizza? Redefining the relationships between doctors and drug companies.
1: Entanglement
Ray Moynihan, journalist1

1 1312 21st Street NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA raymond.moynihan@verizonnet


In this two part article, a journalist based in Washington DC explores the brewing conflicts at one of the world's leading medical campuses as it joins the wider global debate about how to redefine relations with big pharmaceutical companies


Twisted together like the snake and the staff, doctors and drug companies have become entangled in a web of interactions as controversial as they are ubiquitous (box). As national drug bills rise at rates that vastly exceed those of inflation (fig 1), this entanglement and the subsequent flows of money and influence are attracting increasing public and academic scrutiny.


pt 1
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/326/7400/1189%20

BMJ 2003;326:1193-1196 (31 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7400.1193

Education and debate
Who pays for the pizza? Redefining the relationships between doctors and drug companies.

2: Disentanglement
Ray Moynihan, journalist1

1 1312 21st Street NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA raymond.moynihan@verizonnet


If the American Medical Student Association has anything to do with it, relations between doctors and the pharmaceutical industry will soon look considerably different. Representing 30 000 students, interns, and residents throughout the United States, the association is running a campaign—PharmFree—calling for an end to gift giving, free lunches, sponsored education, and paid speaking.