IMPACT OF PHARMACEUTICAL MARKETING ON MEDICAL STUDENTS AND PHYSICIAN CLINICAL PRACTICES

Roxanna Hamidpour, MD and *Rafie Hamidpour, PH.D. DABFE

ABSTRACT

The pharmaceutical industry‟s marketing interactions with the medical field are extensive in both who they target as well as how much they are willing to spend. These interactions have a significant impact on the perceptions of those being marketed to, resulting in increased trust in the pharmaceutical industry and decreased skepticism in the industry‟s influence over medical decisions. The influence this marketing has over medical decisions has been recurrently shown to be associated with changes in prescribing patterns of physicians. These changes and effects mainly rest on the shoulders of patients, who are subject to increased costs of brand name medications, increased physiologic risk to new medications, as well as increased exposure to opioids amid the opioid epidemic. Policies have been enacted to limit the pharmaceutical industry‟s interactions with the medical field as well as increase public knowledge of their payments, but these actions have had mixed impacts on the industry‟s influence over physicians and require further investigation into their effectiveness.

Keywords: Pharmaceutical industries, Medical Student, Residents and Physician clinical practices.