The drugging of the Americas

In the United States, drug companies promoting their products to physicians are required by law to limit their claims to what they can prove, and to make full disclosure of all known hazards. Dr. Silverman, a noted science writer and pharmacologist, finds that many multinational drug companies are circumventing similar laws in Latin America in order to sell more of their products. The author provides detailed comparisons of the promotion of 28 separate prescription drugs in the U.S. and in Mexico, Central America, and other Latin American countries. Typically, claims for effectiveness are exaggerated in Latin America and the hazards are glossed over. This practice, denounced by Latin American medical experts and appalling even to scientists within the drug industry, is blamed for needless patient injury and death. When called upon to explain the inconsistencies in their promotional campaigns, their standard defense is "we're not breaking any laws." But some of these global companies have been breaking laws. They have been lying. In the United States, the major pharmaceutical companies have long and vociferously assailed the laws which now require them to restrict claims of efficacy of their products to those they can support with substantial scientific evidence and to inform physicians fully of all hazards. The companies argue that these rules are excessively harsh and that these laws and regulations are not necessary because the industry recognizes its social responsibilities and would live up to them, laws or no laws. The information presented here is a partial response to such an argument. It demonstrates that a problem exists and shows how some companies comport themselves when there are no restrictive laws, or when the laws are not enforced. -- from Preface.