DOCTORS AND BRAND-NAME DRUGS

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

The Chairman of the Council on Drugs of the AMA, speaking as an individual, has publicly declared that brand names for drugs "should be abolished" and that "the public's best interest will not be served until this is done" since "they [the brand names] serve no constructive purpose". He termed arguments for brand-name prescribing "laughable" and "puerile". (Nelson Committee Hearings, May 20, 1969.)

The medical profession has had two years, from May, 1967, to May, 1969, to clean house: to take up generic prescribing and rid itself of unhealthy financial ties to the drug industry but has failed to act. On the contrary, medical spokesmen even here in Massachusetts which has a larger share of enlightened doctors than any other state, have gone before the legislature and argued against the progressive and highly desirable Serlin Bill which would require doctors to write at least the generic name for a drug product on every prescription.

Last week the President of the AMA personally told me that "doctors should be free to prescribe as they wish," but overlooked that since each doctor is subject to at least $3000 worth of brand-name brainwash per year, each is likely to be a captive of the drug industry. By definition, a captive is not free.

The patent attempt by the Massachusetts Senate to kill the Serlin Bill by amending it and sending it to a committee for further consideration is irresponsible. Hitherto I have refrained from taking public sides on this issue because my natural inclination has been to favor voluntary over legislated change. George Washington would have recognized that I might have been naive. In a letter to John Jay in August, 1786, he wrote, "experience has taught us that men will not adopt and carry into execution measures the best calculated for their own good without the intervention of a coervice power". Even today I would prefer that he had substitued "regulation where necessary" for "coervice power".

Taking courage from stated views of the present Chairman of the AMA's Council on Drugs and of ex-president George Washington, I go on record as supporting passage of the Serlin Bill in the form it had when unanimously passed by the lower House and I strongly suggest that individuals and consumer groups follow suit. Richard Burack, M.D.