Dear Drug Company: Thanks, but I'll Pass on the Free Food

During pharmacy school, my classmates and I were promised a future with seemingly endless streams of cash – $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

In fact, I remember on several occasions when one of my pharmacy professors would bring this up in a joking, yet lighthearted manner each time we’d face a grueling assignment or exhaustive exam in his class. “Just remember, you make lots o’ money one day as pharmacist,” he’d say in his fun-loving, Southeast Asian accent, as he rubbed his index finger and thumb together towards us. He meant well and was a very nice man, one of our class favorites actually. He always seemed to make things more bearable while going through academic torture during those tough years in pharmacy school.

Those were certainly grueling times and the financial payoff turned out to be true. I tell this story in a previous article of mine - Lessons From A Pharmacist – I Get a Big, Fat Paycheck While You Stay Sick.

What strikes me as odd though—especially as I get older—is why we have ‘systems’ in place that seem to cater to the well-to-do in society? Why do doctors, pharmacists, and other healthcare practitioners—who make a very nice living—get all the perks? After all, we are all human beings and put our pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else in life. So why the freebies—from corporations who make billions, to individuals that make millions (over their lifetime), so corporations can make more billions? I don’t understand the purpose.

What I’m referring to is money, gifts, and meals given to doctors, pharmacists, and other healthcare practitioners by multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical and medical device companies in order to gain ‘favor’ with these same practitioners to use their newest blockbuster drug or fancy device. (Check out the Dollars for Docs database to get a better idea of the specifics.)

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