domingo, fevereiro 13, 2005: Promoção Farmacêutica Hardcore

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Drug companies routinely try to woo doctors to prescribe or promote their drugs, taking them out to fancy meals, hiring them as speakers, or contributing to medical schools. But the internal Merck documents offer a rare, behind-the-scenes look into the extremes of this process - one that may have blurred the line between legitimate promotion and offering inducements to doctors to prescribe a drug.

In recent months, federal investigators, state officials, Congressional committees and lawyers for plaintiffs have obtained thousands of internal Merck documents while pursuing investigations and lawsuits related to Vioxx.

The New York Times obtained the documents cited in this article - records that include e-mail messages, memorandums and spreadsheets - through a public official. Some of those records involved physicians Merck sought to "neutralize," while others described promotional activities aimed at doctors not on that list.

In the "neutralize" documents written by a Merck marketing executive, company officials identified dozens of influential but "problem" physicians whom the company believed had either a negative view of Merck or Vioxx or were active boosters of Celebrex.

To win them over, the documents show, Merck officials planned to offer them carrots like clinical trials, posts as consultants or give them grants.

"Attached is the complete list of 36 physicians to neutralize with background information and recommended tactics," the marketing official wrote in an e-mail message.

Merck officials insisted that all the activities they financed were "educational." But one part of a standardized form requesting payments to doctors had a somewhat less erudite tone. It read "Expected Outcome/Return on Investment."

To be sure, some claims made in the Merck internal documents and other company memos might have reflected idle boasts by company sales officials seeking to impress their superiors. In addition, the Merck documents indicated that some of tactics were meant to counter moves by Celebrex.
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The New York Times > Business > Marketing of Vioxx: How Merck Played Game of Catch-Up

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