Tuesday, February 13, 2007

The Prescription Project.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 13 2007, Malibu, California--In the wake of Prof. Dorodny’s recent (1998-2002) Consumer Advocate appointment to FDA General Scientific Advisory Board, and in recognition of his work with, and vis-à-vis the FDA and FTC over the past 12 years, and his expertise on the issues of Pharmaceutical Marketing in the Managed Care Environment, Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) and Direct-to-Providers (DTP) information exchange and dissemination, Prof. Dorodny will join the Community Catalyst project.

Consumer-advocacy group has launched a national campaign to try to reduce conflicts of interest between doctors and the pharmaceutical companies that ply their physician-customers with everything from boxfuls of drug samples to free lunches and generous lecture fees.

The Community Catalyst, a Boston-based not-for-profit group, said the two-year long Prescription Project, funded by a $6 million grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts, will attempt to raise awareness of these conflicts and encourage physicians to use evidenced-based systems when they prescribe drugs to patients. Community Catalyst will work with the Institute on Medicine as a Profession, a think tank at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York to demonstrate how these close financial connections effect quality and costs in health care.

Drug companies spend about $12 billion a year on marketing efforts to doctors, and national spending on prescription drugs—rising at a rate double that of other health services—is nearly $200 billion a year.

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