Dr. Gail Hacker

The debate about drug company gifts began as a piece by a reporter who discovered that a local doctor, Gail Hacker, was the only local member of an organization, "No Free Lunch," that criticizes gifts by drug companies to doctors.A sales person from Novartis (ironically, a manufacturer of neuroleptic psychiatric drugs) wrote a guest column complaining about the bad reputation of drug sales staff; he protested that he is a "nice guy."A letter to the editor that same day claimed Dr. Hacker was 20 years behind the times.Dr. Hacker responded with her own guest column.Here's the debate.
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Dr. Gail Hacker still remembers the pitch she got from a pharmaceutical sales representative early in her medical career.

"If I put my next five hypertensive patients on his drug, he would send me and my husband out to a nice dinner," she said.

Hacker, a family physician who now works at Lane Community College's health clinic, says she declined the offer.But she says it opened her eyes to the lengths to which the pharmaceutical industry would go to promote its products.And it led her to swear off all the freebies that the industry routinely bestows on doctors and their staffs, from pens and clipboards inscribed with drug names, to free lunches and drug samples.

"I can afford my own pen," she said.

Hacker is among a growing number of doctors, lawmakers and public interest groups who are fighting back against the pharmaceutical industry's aggressive marketing.
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By Gail Hacker
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Gail Hacker, M.D., is medical director of the Lane Community College Health Clinic.

This included an article about physician Gail Hacker who refuses such gifts, guest column (Mr. Smyly, by a pharamceutical rep), a letter to the editor, and a response by Dr. Hacker.
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This included an article about physician Gail Hacker who refuses such gifts, guest column (Mr. Smyly, by a pharamceutical rep), a letter to the editor, and a response by Dr. Hacker.

The debate about drug company gifts began as a piece by a reporter who discovered that a local doctor, Gail Hacker, was the only local member of an organization, "No Free Lunch," that criticizes gifts by drug companies to doctors.A sales person from Novartis (ironically, a manufacturer of neuroleptic psychiatric drugs) wrote a guest column complaining about the bad reputation of drug sales staff; he protested that he is a "nice guy."A letter to the editor that same day claimed Dr. Hacker was 20 years behind the times.Dr. Hacker responded with her own guest column.Here's the debate.

The debate about drug company gifts began as a piece by a reporter who discovered that a local doctor, Gail Hacker, was the only local member of an organization, "No Free Lunch," that criticizes gifts by drug companies to doctors. A sales person from Novartis (ironically, a manufacturer of neuroleptic psychiatric drugs) wrote a guest column complaining about the bad reputation of drug sales staff; he protested that he is a "nice guy. A letter to the editor that same day claimed Dr. Hacker was 20 years behind the times. Dr. Hacker responded with her own guest column. Here's the debate.
...
Dr. Gail Hacker still remembers the pitch she got from a pharmaceutical sales representative early in her medical career.

"If I put my next five hypertensive patients on his drug, he would send me and my husband out to a nice dinner," she said.

Hacker, a family physician who now works at Lane Community College's health clinic, says she declined the offer. But she says it opened her eyes to the lengths to which the pharmaceutical industry would go to promote its products. And it led her to swear off all the freebies that the industry routinely bestows on doctors and their staffs, from pens and clipboards inscribed with drug names, to free lunches and drug samples.

"I can afford my own pen," she said.

Hacker is among a growing number of doctors, lawmakers and public interest groups who are fighting back against the pharmaceutical industry's aggressive marketing.
...
By Gail Hacker
...
Gail Hacker, M.D., is medical director of the Lane Community College Health Clinic.

Dr. Gail Hacker still remembers the pitch she got from a pharmaceutical sales representative early in her medical career. “If I put my next five hypertensive patients on his drug, he would send me and my husband out to a nice dinner,� she said. Hacker, a family physician who now works at Lane Community College’s [...]

The author Gail Hacker M.D., medical director at Lane Community College Health Clinic, does an eloquent job of explaining why drug samples aren't a solution for her and her underserved patients - and why she feels it's incumbent on her fellow physicians to turn back pharma's advances, not the other way around. She writes: