The Medical Profession and the Pharmaceutical Industry: An Unhealthy Alliance

Abstract

The Canadian medical profession has a long history of allying itself with the Canadian pharmaceutical industry. This alliance exists on two levels: medical associations and medical journals. As a result of the alliance the traditional emphasis of the medical profession on the primacy of the welfare of the patient has been subverted in favor of the profit motive of the drug industry. Elements of the medical profession promote useless pharmaceutical research, poor physician prescribing, and physician involvement in educational activities controlled by the industry. Specific reforms to loosen the alliance are outlined, but ultimately the alliance will only be broken when the values of Canadian physicians change.