Lyrica has a commericla, why cant Percot!?

[SKL]

They kind of stopped the stationary, pens, clipboards etc. here in the US. The trade association for big pharma set a new code of conduct a few years back that states even these knick-knacks can be seen as fostering an unhealthy relationship between drug reps and prescribers. And they actually have stuck to it. They are only allowed to bring educational materials.

But the doctors are still getting money from them. Free samples are still allowed, the pharmaceutical company can host in-services where they bring food and they hire doctors to give talks at conferences and continuing educational lectures. It is quite lucrative if you can get the gig and even perhaps more pernicious as it is doctors talking to their colleagues which gives it more credibility to the audience.

I love it when the reps visit our hospital. Free bagels and sometimes even sushi or catered whatever. They also are quite often beautiful women. I miss the pens and the other thingamajigs though. I have a lot of tote bags. My Prozac clock broke recently I still have my Viagra pen (one of the better ones) and my Oxycontin pens and a Zyprexa pen and a few others kicking around. Clozapine clipboards and post-it notes, all sorts of other stuff. And it's not just random cheap crap too. Some of them are really good pens, not just cheap throwaway plastic stuff.

RIP Prozac Clock

(edit to add: it's being sold online! I'm getting a replacement!)

 

[Burnt Offerings]

My parents still have a Vioxx pen, LOL. What a disaster that drug turned out to be

 

[manboychef]

I would love to see some morphine hcl commercials on tv. Possibly a xanax bar commercial.

it would go like this

pans in to dude yelling at cat cos hes shedding on the floor. Dude walks over to fridge grabs a beer and opens it...it sprays the entire contents all over him and his kitchen. He then goes to the supply closet to grab a mop and everything falls out and he just stands there stomping around and swearing.....finally some text pops up "Is this you?" "a hand reaches out from behind the camera and gives him a xanax bar" Next thing you know it shows the man sitting on a couch watching a blank tv petting the cat...he is also wearing a cardigan for some reason. More text pops up. "xanax, when watching american gladiators is not enough"

 

[SKL]

 

[Kittycat5]

Heroin, when mommy and daddy cant find a babysitter.

 

[Burnt Offerings]

Sometimes I don't get the moral indignation in regards to the commercialization of prescription drugs and the prescription drug industry. It's not that I don't recognize how fucked up it has been, but the underlying reason for all the fucked up-edness (the pursuit of profit/accumulation of capital) is present in basically every industry in the modern economic system, yet criticism of other industries or of the economic system in general is much more muted or non-existent. To me, given the economic system the world exists in, it just makes sense that drugs would be commercialized and target markets would be pandered to, just like with anything else.

This isn't directed at anyone in particular, btw, more of a general comment based on some of the criticisms I've seen among the drug abusing community about how morally bankrupt the pharmaceutical industry supposedly is (yet many wouldn't raise objections if the prescription drugs which are handed out like candy got handed out to them like candy )

 

[BeachBum4u]

^ "direct to consumer" prescription drug advertisements are banned in every Western country except for the US and New Zealand.
It seems really odd to me when i see ads for pharmaceuticals in American media. I find it creepy enough that most GPs stationary, etc is Big Pharma branded in my country.

I live in the US and I hate it! If I were a doctor, I would not appreciate a patient walking in in my office saying, "I want to take med A or B because I saw it in TV". Hell, if you saw it on TV then it must be "the shit", right? I say, either use me as your doctor and trust me as a physician or get the fuck out of my office. I mean, who needs that shit!

Also, as far as drug reping goes, I have to agree that it's pretty out of control (even if it's true what a poster said of the drug reps not handing out things like they used to). I know one thing they still hand out like crazy and that's the drug they're pushing. I went to the doctor this week and one of the office workers had put together a list that read "Drugs we do not need from Drug reps". The list had over 20 drugs listed on it. Holy hell, they must have an entire office filled with nothing but drugs from drug reps. Another funny item at this same office (just to show you how inundated with drug reps this office is) next to the door handle you use to enter their offices is a sign that reads "Drug Reps only on Tuesday and Thursdays from 2:00 - 4:00pm". I don't know what can be done about all this craziness but somebody somewhere should really look into this whole process to see if it's really benefitting patients and patient care. If it's not, then get rid of it.

One other note I had from reading all these posts, no need to wonder why there aren't any ads for Percocets. It's called money! There's no need to advertise them, Percocets are always in the Top 10 of medicines prescribed in the US every year. Those ads are trying to put Lyrica in the Top 10 too.

 

[SKL]

My psychiatrist loves new drugs, as well as polypharmacy, and there are reps in his office literally every time that I go. It's no biggie to me because I'm in the same business as he is and can just tell him (politely) to get fucked if he tries to foist something off on me that I'm not interested in, but he seems to want to get me started on some different novelty every time. Latest it's Rexulti which is basically slightly modified Abilify (the pharmcos are on the same game as the RC people for patent reasons) and, notwithstanding the fact that I have no interest in getting on an atypical, I straight up asked him is it that different from Abilify, and he was like, well, the reps say so ... and I kind of rolled my eyes ... and my insurance doesn't cover this drug so instead of just offering me Abilify (which I have no interest in either) he was talking about free samples and patient assistance program for Rexulti. Just cause it's new doesn't mean its better (but I do take, from him, Viibryd, newish and actually pretty good) ... but I wonder about those less knowledgeable about psych meds ... in fact alot of his ZocDoc ratings is people bitching about him pushing too many prescriptions on them. His waiting room is also full of brochures about this and that, I guess to encourage people to come in and ask for something by name. There's probably some kind of kickback shit going on but whatever, he's a knowledgeable doc and a pretty cool guy and reliable source of meds that I need and I can pretty much tell him what I want to be on ... but yeah if I wasn't in the same business I'd kind of worry what would happen.