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A group of US health care providers is asking physicians to take a pledge to be "drug-company free." The organizers of No Free Lunch (www.nofree lunch.org) believe that "pharmaceutical promotion should not guide clinical practice."
Its director, New York City general internist Bob Goodman, says the pledge drive is designed to educate and convince physicians not to accept free products from drug companies. US pharmaceutical companies spend about $13 billion annually or drug promotion, and since 1994 their sales forces have grown from 35 000 to 56 000 people.
Doctors who sign on to the "drug-- free-practitioners list" must pledge to be "free of company money...