Family Practice Vol. 16, No. 4, 446
© Oxford University Press 1999
Correspondence |
Wonca and the pharmaceutical industry
Warwick House Medical Centre, Holway Green, Upper Holway Road, Taunton, Somerset TA1 2YJ.
Why is WONCA, the World Organisation of National Colleges, Academies and Academic Associations of General Practice/Family Medicine, heavily promoting two of Pharmacia & Upjohn's recent drugs? As a GP in the UK, I support WONCA's work, as summarized by its incoming president in Family Doctor 1998; 10: "To improve the quality of life of the people of the world ... by fostering high standards of care in general practice/ family medicine." Like many doctors, presumably worldwide, I keep up with WONCA news by reading Family Doctor and I turned to issue 10 particularly keen to read about WONCA '98, which had been held in Dublin and was entitled "People and their Family Doctors—Partners in Care". The insert entitled "Focus on WONCA '98" explained that "This newsletter reports on some of the key presentations made during WONCA '98. In particular it focuses on the prevalence, diagnosis and effective management of overactive bladder, a widespread, yet often neglected, problem." Sure enough, the first half of the newsletter reported three presentations on this topic and the effectiveness of a new treatment Tolderodine marketed as Detrusitol and Detrol. The newsletter was published on behalf of Pharmacia & Upjohn. Stunned by such blatant advertising, I returned to Family Doctor and noted that this was published by the same company, and that while pages 3–11 were commissioned by WONCA, pages 13–24 were commissioned by Pharmacia & Upjohn. These latter pages consisted of three articles on depression which described the biochemical changes associated with depression and promoted Reboxetine (Edronax), a new selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI), claiming that it had advantages over more established antidepressants.
This WONCA publication suggests that family doctors should be prescribing new expensive drugs because a pharmaceutical company says they are good. Overactive bladder, if indeed such a syndrome exists except as a construction for marketing a product, is hardly the most pressing problem to face family doctors worldwide, and evidence for treating depression with reboxetine is lacking, according to Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin November 1998; 36: 11. If WONCA is going to "improve the quality of life of the people of the world", it needs to promote cost-effective patient-centred medicine and disassociate itself from the pharmaceutical industry.
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