We are now in an era of transparency when it comes to medicine and its relationship with the pharmaceutical industry. The Sunshine Act is in place, and the public wants to understand what relationship their physicians have with industry. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most scrutinized and regulated in the U.S. This regulation does not just apply to industry’s financial relationships with physicians. In addition to regulation of gifts and payments to physicians, industry now is even more restricted on what it tells physicians. Why have we gotten to this point, and has the regulation crossed the line?First, we need to address the issue of giving misleading information. It goes without saying that a company should not be able to make false claims. While there has been much discussion recently about the FDA restricting industry’s right to freedom of speech by restricting what it tells physicians and the public, clearly this does not apply in this situation. Obviously, misleading information and false claims may put patients at risk and should be restricted. But what if the information is not false? This is where the problem lies.
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