Reader letters: Drug company representatives and doctors

Re “A Prescription for Snooping,” Dec. 14: There is virtually no need for a physician to be “detailed” by a drug company representative. There is a publication for physicians, the Medical Letter, that has been published biweekly for the past nearly 50 years.

It is the Consumer Reports of drug information for doctors, reviewing virtually all new (and re-reviewing, as needed, older) drugs. It contains what the doctor needs to know about how a drug works, as well as efficacy, safety, some cost information and whatever is known about comparisons to other drugs. It accepts no advertising and is written by experts.

Any other information he or she can get from the PDR (Physicians’ Desk Reference), which is a compendium of the information on drugs.

It is published annually and updated every four to six months.

More info can be obtained -- if needed -- from professional journals.

Drug reps are obviously biased and contribute to higher healthcare costs both by their effectiveness in getting new and more expensive drugs prescribed when older, cheaper ones are sufficient, and by virtue of their own salaries, a considerable expense to the pharmaceutical industry that, of course, is passed on to you and me when we purchase the drug they push.

David J Erikson Jr., MD, retired physician

Laguna Niguel

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The hypocrisy of the health control freaks is clearly on display in this article.

The same legislators who would prohibit data mining by drug companies because physicians might be induced to prescribe more expensive drugs would create government regulatory bodies to ensure that only “affordable” (read: cheapest) drugs are prescribed -- destroying innovation and lives in the process.

Kip Dellinger

West Los Angeles

More coffee?

Even though drinking excessive amounts of coffee can lower the risk of diabetes [Booster Shots blog, Dec. 14], I still do not believe that it is necessarily safe.

Excessively doing anything is a bad idea.

There will be plenty of other ways to lower the risk of diabetes in the future, so people should not be convinced that drinking five extra cups of coffee per day is their only option.

Rachel Behm

Coto de Caza

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