Opinion
Properly provided drug samples do not undermine generic prescriptions
LETTER — Posted Nov. 10, 2008
Regarding "Drug samples can mean fewer generic prescriptions for the uninsured" (Article, Oct. 6): There is no reason why providing samples to patients should influence the prescribing of generics, unless doctors are too rushed, too lazy or just oblivious to the financial plight of their patients.
Few of the uninsured will fill a prescription costing upward of a hundred dollars, as is often the case for brand-name drugs. The physician has the responsibility to know how, or if, the prescription will be paid for.
The drug companies are far from blameless, but are, after all, for-profit corporations. We physicians, as professionals, should hold ourselves to higher standards and accept blame for our own deficiencies rather than blame them on the drug companies. To paraphrase Shakespeare: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our samples, but in ourselves.
Roger Mansnerus, MD, Westlake, Ohio
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/11/10/edlt1110.htm.
