Nearly all general practitioners meet representatives of drug companies.' The drug industry spent an estimated £5000 per general practitioner promoting its products in the United Kingdom in 1985.2 Drug representatives are a crucial element in the promotion of products, and expenditure on representatives accounts for over 500/o of promotional budgets.' Information is available on the frequency a...

A Cochrane systematic review explored the potential role of rimonabant for overweight and obesity [1]. On the basis of surrogate outcomes reported in the included RCTs, rimonabant has been a candidate (by its producer) to act as a pleiotropic agent for the entire cardiovascular risk spectrum. Is this compelling evidence to consider rimonabant the new panacea for the ‘‘metabolic syndrome’’ or ar...

BACKGROUND Inexpensive antihypertensive drugs are at least as effective and safe as more expensive drugs. Overuse of newer, more expensive antihypertensive drugs is a poor use of resources. The potential savings are substantial, but vary across countries, in large part due to differences in prescribing patterns. We wanted to describe prescribing patterns of antihypertensive drugs in ten countri...

BACKGROUND The 1990 Contract encouraged general practitioners to participate in continuing medical education by providing a financial incentive. AIM The study was designed: to determine the motivation of general practitioners attending education events; and to compare motivation and reasons for attendance pre- and post-Contract at commercial and non-commercial meetings, and at the different e...

Interactions between drug companies and medical students may affect evidence-based medical practice and patient safety. The aim of this study was to assess drug company-medical student interactions in a medical faculty where limited specific national or institutional regulations apply between drug companies and medical students. The objectives of the study were to determine the exposure and att...

OBJECTIVE To generate recommendations for framing messages to promote HPV vaccination, specifically for African American adolescents and their parents who have not yet made a decision about the vaccine (the "Undecided" market segment). METHODS Focus groups and interviews were conducted with African American girls ages 11-18 (N=34) and their mothers (N=31), broken into market segments based on...

in 2008, Harald Zur Hausen received the nobel Prize in physiology and medicine for showing that two human papilloma viruses, HPV16 and HPV18, were associated with the bulk of cervical cancers, and that some of the genes contained within the viruses were incorporated into the infected host tissue, resulting in carcinogenesis. These carcinogenic strains of HPV cause 70% of cervical cancer and kil...

OBJECTIVES To gain an understanding of the role of pack design in tobacco marketing. METHODS A search of tobacco company document sites using a list of specified search terms was undertaken during November 2000 to July 2001. RESULTS Documents show that, especially in the context of tighter restrictions on conventional avenues for tobacco marketing, tobacco companies view cigarette packaging...

BACKGROUND Tobacco companies target young adults through marketing strategies that use bars and nightclubs to promote smoking. As restrictions increasingly limit promotions, music marketing has become an important vehicle for tobacco companies to shape brand image, generate brand recognition and promote tobacco. METHODS Analysis of previously secret tobacco industry documents from British Ame...