The New York Times reports in Vital Signs, “A study reports that students from a medical school where” gifts from drugmakers “are allowed had a more favorable attitude toward a cholesterol drug than did students from a school where they are banned.” For the study, appearing in the Archives of Internal Medicine, “researchers worked with 352 third- and fourth-year students at” the University of Pennsylvania, “which bans most gifts, samples, and meals from drug companies, and the University of Miami, which allows them.” They “assessed whether the students had positive or negative associations with the cholesterol drug Lipitor [atorvastatin] and a competitor, Zocor [simvastatin], which is available generically for less money.” Overall, “most students from both schools viewed Lipitor more favorably,” but when fourth-year students at Miami used “promotional materials like Lipitor clipboards and notebooks, they…showed stronger positive feelings for the drug.”
From the American Association for Justice news release.
