Have you been lap dancing to improve your knowledge of modern drug therapy?
One of the world’s largest drug companies has been disciplined by the industry’s UK watchdog after admitting that its staff entertained doctors to greyhound racing, lapdancing and Centre Court tickets at Wimbledon.
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Authority (ABPI) ruled that the scale of the hospitality to doctors who might be influenced to prescribe Abbott Laboratories’ drugs breached its code of practice. It suspended the company, which made $3.4bn (£2bn) profit last year on worldwide sales of $22.3bn, from its board of management for six months.
An anonymous whistleblower triggered the ABPI investigation when he complained that drug reps had taken 27 doctors to the greyhound track in Manchester in January 2004 and 36 others in September. He also complained that two Abbott employees had taken a senior doctor to a lapdancing club, where one of them, a senior manager, borrowed £1,000 for the evening out from the other, a rep.
2 Comments
It’s a great story.
A drug rep with £1,000 in cash in his wallet.
He must have won it at the dogs!
Must dash…..off to somewhere called The Spearmint Rhino. Do you know it at all?
Pip pip!
PS Hope you like this ad for
Abbott Laps
http://pharmagossip.blogspot.com/2006/02/abbott-are-you-their-kind-of-person.html