Can doctors interact with drug company representatives without compromising their ethical duties to their patients?
This question begs us to consider the foundation of both disciplines. On one hand, physicians take oaths across the globe in various languages, all of which have the core principle that doctors are ethically committed to doing the best for their patients. Patients’ and their wellbeing are to be the focus of a doctor’s work. The pharmaceutical industry, meanwhile, has a simple founding economic principle-to maximise profits through the sale of prescription drugs. Dr Brody, a US general practitioner writing on this subject, reminds us that this goal “includes persuading physicians to prescribe more of the most expensive drugs.”1 Doctors who take gifts and propaganda (including a lunch lecture on the “newest, biggest drug”) from pharmaceutical salespeople, and who also treat patients, walk an ethical tightrope. How can we serve our patients’ interests and keep company with those who see our patients in terms of revenue? Taking this question to the literature, I found that doctors have rai
