Eli Lilly and Co. claims
they fired Jamie Reidy not for blowing any whistles, but because he appears to condone aggressive and controversial practices Lilly insists are against company policy.
The firing comes at a time when the drug industry is under intense criticism over certain sales practices, including gift giving, that consumer groups, employers and some lawmakers believe tend to increase health-care costs. Through gifts and other payments, critics say, doctors are influenced to prescribe the latest, often most expensive, brand-name drug.
Reidy said he was surprised at Lilly's decision, particularly because some of the gift-giving tactics he outlined in the book have since been curtailed by drugmakers as part of industry self-policing. His book, he says, shines the light on industry flaws that can be corrected.
At Lilly, "Identifying flaws and areas of improvement were one of the things you were supposed to do," Reidy said. "I went in and wrote a funny book. That was my goal."
That's
funny?
Is this guy an asshole, even if he is shining some light on a serious problem.
An aggressive "anything for 20% profit margins" attitude among Big Pharm companies is a huge part--the biggest part, IMO--of the crisis in health care costs.
I diaried extensively on this issue in a review of Marcia Angell's The Truth About the Drug Companies, so I won't rehash.
As I learn more, I have grown more and more convinced that the big drug companies epitomize what is wrong with the economic culture in this nation, and that progressives need to formulate a stronger message that argues for greater regulation of industries that have life and death consequences for all citizens.