Beyond Moral Outrage – Weighing the Trade-Offs of COI Regulation

June 4, 2015

(New England Journal of Medicine) – Although I probably couldn’t have explained its rationale, I never questioned the anti-pharma animus that pervaded my medical education. The message I received from certain outspoken classmates and fellow trainees was that interacting with pharmaceutical reps was simply wrong. Being caught with a pharma-sponsored sandwich was like being seen throwing compostable items into the garbage: people glared. Being a pharmascold conferred the do-gooder sheen many of us coveted.