Sincerely,

Unhappy Dinner Guest and “invitee”

Then, you have to decide whether to break up, or keep going…

I’m in agreement with the first commentor, as Kurt Vonnegut says, “TANSTAAFL” the economics in any relationship always matter.

Believe me, these pharmaceutical companies are experts at winning friends and influencing people. They are smart enough not to come on like a ton of bricks at a first meeting. Didn’t you feel kind of important, being invited? Wasn’t it kind of cool to be a part of that?

It’s easy to get addicted to dope. The food is the dope, the buzz is the dope, the prestige is the dope. And in this case, the dope is the dope.

It’s not that all of the drugs are bad, but it is sickening how much we “legally” over-use and mis-use them.

I am not “for” or “against” any particular industry. But at times it seems like the ones with the most money (Investment ‘Advisors’, Drug Companies, Oil Companies) may have lower ethical standards than industries with lower profit margins. Maybe someone can run a statistical correllation? Show us the effect size of money on principles?

I’m just noticing the irony in a situation where some people write about the supposed influence on doctors and researchers, when they themselves are open to the exact same influences in the exact same manner.

Don’t hold others to a higher standard that you yourself don’t also want to be held to. Don’t complain about docs or researchers being paid $1000 for their consulting time, and then take gifts in exchange for your consulting with one pharma to help their blogging strategy.

First of all, I believe Pharmalot decided to not let J&J pay for its dinner. But surely if these people can be influenced to forgo any principles they have by giving them a free feeding, anything they ever say should be subject to skepticism. We should have public access to the bank records and credit card transactions of them and their families, so we can be sure that Pharmalot paid for its three courses and one shot of espresso, and J&J did the same for itself.
What about you sir, have you ever disclosed using a free pen branded with an anti-psychotic instead of buying your own? You must have known that the pen was given to you for nothing other than to influence your opinion.
Having attended the said summit, defined by the American Heritage dictionary as “any meeting or conference of top-level officials, executives, etc.” , to soothe your thoughts I can tell you that this was the least propagandistic dinner I’ve ever been. They were actually quite obviously trying to be as removed from any promotion as possible. They really just wanted to talk about what’s happening with medblogs these days.
I suggest that everyone take it easy regarding this dinner.