David Rothman Quotations

The data are overwhelming. Gifts, travel grants, consulting contracts, support for continuing medical education and speaking fees affect which drugs doctors prescribe for their patients.

Drug companies spend $13,000 per physician annually. Those marketing tactics are very, very effective at getting physicians to do what each drug company wants -- to prescribe their product.

The more lucrative the drug market, the higher the percentage of experts with financial ties - that has to raise serious questions about these panels' objectivity.

If there is one thing our committee agreed upon, it is that there is no such thing as a free gift.

The essence of our proposal is to build a firewall between drug companies and medical practitioners.

The guidelines that now exist are very weak and operate at the margins. They lack monitoring, and, for the most part, they lack teeth.