thought leaders | The Ethical Nag

drug reps. fourbags

Psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Carlat is a compelling storyteller. One especially compelling story, Dr. Drug Rep, was told in the pages of the New York Times Magazine about his own very brief career moonlighting as a Big Pharma drug rep.

Once upon a time, he explained, on a blustery fall New England day in 2001, a friendly sales manager from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals came into his medical office and made him an offer he found hard to refuse.

“He asked me if I’d like to give talks to other doctors about using Effexor XR for treating depression. It would be pretty easy. Wyeth would provide a set of slides and even pay for me to attend a speaker’s training session.

“I would be paid $500 for one-hour Lunch and Learn talks at local doctors’ offices, or $750 if I had to drive out of town. I would be flown to New York City for a ‘faculty-development program,’ where I would be pampered in a midtown hotel for two nights, and would be paid an additional honorarium.” Continue reading →

For a measly $200,000 (truly a drop in the drug bucket when you consider that Big Pharma is a $235 billion industry) the pharmaceutical company Forest Laboratories, Inc. decided to add some medical muscle to its Paid Media Outreach for the anti-depressant drug Lexapro. Forest Labs’ plan was to write ‘bylined articles’ with the collaboration of ‘thought leaders‘ to push sales. The New York Times has released a copy of this marketing plan, including these gems:

“Bylined articles will allow us to fold Lexapro messages into articles on depression, anxiety, and co-morbidity developed by (or ghostwritten for) thought leaders. We will identify a Lexapro thought leader to place 1-3 bylined articles in trade journals, consumer publications and on the Internet. Estimated costs include article development, revisions and honoraria for the authors. Examples of topics include co-morbidity of depression and anxiety and selectivity. Continue reading →