TV: Panorama: Who’s paying your doctor?, BBC1
14/04/2014, 20:30
Panorama sets out to investigate the tactics drug companies are using to influence what doctors prescribe. Part of the programme looks at drug company sponsorship of sessions at medical conferences, using the example of a psychiatry conference in Munich. Oxford professor and consultant psychiatrist Guy Goodwin was paid to speak at a symposium organised by French drug firm Servier on depression. Tim Kendall of the Sheffield Health & Social Care NHS Foundation Trust, who was involved in making the programme, claims that, although Professor Goodwin didn’t mention or talk about Servier’s new antidepressant drug, by speaking at the industry-organised session as an eminent expert in the field he gives the drug credibility. Professor Goodwin points out in a statement that the industry sponsorship was clear, no guidelines were broken, there was no problem with the content of his talk and he states how much he receives from these talks