Drug companies ‘maligned’

Press, 5 October 1977, Page 32

Drug companies ‘maligned’

Pharmaceutical companies are much maligned and their profits called into question but they have to make a profit to survive and fund research into new medicines, according to the associate professor of general practice at the Auckland Medical School (Professor J. G. Richards). The companies were making the greatest single financial contribution towards the post-graduate education of New Zealand doctors, Professor Richards told a special industry meeting in Auckland.

“If the profits are high in pharmaceutical manufacture and development, so are the risks, but any profits are generally used responsibly. “A very large proportion of every significant pharmaceutical company's profits goes back into research — and a substantial proportion of the most important advances in medical treatment

have sprung from these re searches.

“Reduce these profits and you reduce the ability to do research." Professor Richards said that on the whole pharmaceutical companies were imaginative and responsible in their approach to advertising new medicines and had made valuable contributions to the medical post-graduate education of doctors. 1

“Apart from providing details of new medicines direct to the doctor through medical representatives, the advertising by companies funded several local medical magazines.

“The industry also pays for medical education meetings, visits by overseas professors, grants for doctors to further postgraduate education, teaching materials, and other valuable information. ‘*We must remember that the sum of medical knowledge is claimed to be doubling in every 10 years.”

Professor Richards said the public must learn to be more reasonable in their expectations of medical science. “Too often the public expects a new medicine for every symptom.

“Greater advances will only come as a result of good research — well funded, and a partnership between the manufacturers and die medical profession,’’ said Professor Richards.