Lawrence University Biomedical Ethics Lecture Examines Influence of Pharmaceutical Industry on Medical Practice

APPLETON, WIS. --Is the type of influence peddling by deep-pocketed lobbyists typically found in the hallways of Congress and state houses spilling into the offices of doctors and hospitals?

Michigan State University ethicist Dr. Howard Brody shares his views on what he calls "the increasingly distorting effect on both medical practice and medical science" as a result of heavy spending by major drug companies Wednesday, Nov. 20 in an address in Lawrence University's 2002-2003 Edward F. Mielke Lecture Series in Biomedical Ethics.

Brody presents "From Half a Million a Year to the Basement of the YMCA: The Influence of the Pharmaceutical Industry on the Medical Profession" at 7 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium on the Lawrence campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Citing the individual physician who receives a free dinner at the local steak house in exchange for listening to a drug sales pitch, the academic department that relies on industry funding for research opportunities for its faculty and the medical journals that depend upon drug advertisements for their operating expenses as examples, Brody will discuss how the pharmaceutical industry's influence has become pervasive on multiple levels of the medical field. To reverse pharmaceutical influence, Brody calls for enhanced professional responsibility on the part of individual physicians as well as new regulations.

Brody joined the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences at Michigan State in 1980 and served as its director from 1985-2000. In addition to his work at the Center, he maintains a part-time clinical practice and is involved with the teaching of medical students and residents. He earned both his M.D. and Ph.D. in philosophy at Michigan State.