Med ed companies take a hit in Forbes article

This article in Forbes takes a hard look at pharma marketing practices, including the role of med ed companies. Here's a snip:

The company also sponsored continuing medical education programs for doctors that appeared to be thinly veiled attempts to influence prescribing patterns, the study authors said.





"A lot of continuing medical education in this country now is run by medical education companies that are funded through unrestricted educational grants from drug companies," Steinman said. "Unrestricted means no-strings-attached, but we found that some of the same companies that are putting on medical education programs are also working for drug companies in different ways. There's an intrinsic conflict of interest. They're supposedly doing an objective program, but, at the same time, they're telling the company how they can increase sales."