A recent study shows how Forest Laboratories, a major pharmaceutical company, used its "marketing muscle to successfully peddle expensive pills that are no more effective than than older drugs sold at a fraction of the cost," the New York Times reported.

The pushed drug was Lexapro, an antidepressant. An 88-page document outlines exactly how Forest Laboratories made the expensive drug highly successful; however each of the document's 88 pages are marked confidential.

"But those 88 pages make clear that one of the principal means by which Forest hoped to persuade psychiatrists, primary care doctors and other medical specialists to prescribe Lexapro was to find by finding many ways to put money into doctors' pockets and food into their mouths," the New York Times stated. It is illegal to pay doctors to prescribe certain medicines to their patients. It is not illegal to pay doctors to educate their colleagues about a medicine. In recent years, federal prosecutors have accused many drug makers of deliberately crossing that line.

The idea of marketing in the medicinal world is scary because it runs the dangerous gamut of putting the lure of profit before the protection of the patient. The best way to cure these marketing maladies is to create a systematic foundation on prescribing drugs.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/business/02drug.html?_r=1&ref=health