Hypocrisy at the Medical School

Hypocrisy in action! The Daily and The Stanford Report have recently chosen to highlight the decision of the Medical School administration to basically ban all pharmaceutical company activities at the school. This includes rejecting gifts of items or activities promoting drugs, such as pens, pads, lunches, etc. This is presumably to protect the innocent from being seduced by the clever marketing people who try to influence prescribing habits. Vendors of medical devices seem to be exempt from this prohibition.

The esteemed Medical School Dean Philip Pizzo has championed this action with unusual anti-industry rhetoric. Now, take a look at the photo of the Dean on page two of the Fall 2006 issue of Stanford Medicine. He has chosen to have the photographer take a picture of him with a model of a human skeleton at his elbow.

Those of us who are recipients of “gifts” from the pharmaceutical industry immediately recognized that this model he has chosen to be at his side is part of the marketing by Pfizer, Inc. of its anti-arthritis drug Celebrex. The base plate is imprinted with the names Searle, Pfizer and Celebrex. I assume the Dean has chosen this prop because he liked the subtle message the item projects!

So much for the purity and squeaky-clean image of the anti-pharmaceutical administration that seeks to protect their oh-so-vulnerable students in training from the evil marketing by big pharmaceuticals!

Warnen Wonka

Class of 1950