More Academic Centers Becoming Pharm-Free Zones

Thanks to the weekly update from the Prescription Project (see Links), I learned that a couple more university medical centers have joined the movement to adopt strict policies limiting the access of pharmaceutical industry marketing people and methods to their campuses. Stanford probably got the most publicity when it adopted such a policy a year or so ago.

The recent moves have ocurred at the University of Pittsburgh and UC-Davis. At Davis, the policy was actually an expansion of an earlier policy, adding device and other manufacturers to a policy that previous dealt mostly with drug companies.

The articles listed other campuses (besides Stanford) that had already taken similar steps to ban most industry marketing activities--Yale, UCLA, Michigan, Penn, Vermont, Henry Ford (Detroit), and Kaiser Permanente of Northern California. I believe that Wisconsin was actually one of the first campuses to go this way.

Griffith D. UCD expands its ban on medical freebies: in addition to drug industry, any other vendor doing business with health system is now included. Sacramento Bee, July 3, 2007.

Fahy J. UPMC draws up severe code on freebies. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 2, 2007.