english.prescrire.org > Spotlight > Archives : 2010 > For quality healthcare, free healthcare professionals and the health authorities from the influences that hinder them from acting in patients' best interests

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For quality healthcare, free healthcare professionals and the health authorities from the influences that hinder them from acting in patients' best interests

The influence exerted by healthcare products manufacturers on the health sector is jeopardising the quality of care.

Patients and healthcare professionals are subject to the influence of pharmaceutical companies in a number of ways, from medical research to pharmacovigilance and drug information. They are given insufficient protection from the health authorities, which are also subject to influence.

There are countless examples showing that the marketing authorisation system does not offer sufficient quality and safety guarantees: drugs that are insufficiently evaluated before commercialisation or that are authorised despite an uncertain or even  unfavourable risk-benefit balance; drugs with an unfavourable risk-benefit balance that are allowed to stay on the market for too long, etc.

In practice, pharmaceutical companies play too great a role in providing drug evaluation data and documenting their products’ adverse effects. Clinical trials and an independent pharmacovigilance system would make drug evaluation more transparent and more credible, without the risk of data being doctored or hushed up by the pharmaceutical companies.

Pharmaceutical companies have a huge influence on the public and on healthcare professionals. The ban on direct-to-consumer advertising must be maintained.

Healthcare professionals must fight against the influence of pharmaceutical companies on their initial training and continuing professional education. Patient groups must resist offers of "help" from the pharmaceutical companies.

The motto everywhere should be "he who pays the piper should call the tune".

©Prescrire September 2010

Source: Numéro spécial "Agir pour l'accès de chacun aux soins de qualité" Rev Prescrire 2010; 30 (322).

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