How to dance with porcupines: rules and guidelines on doctors' relations with drug companies

Wager, Elizabeth publications consultant

Sideview, Princes Risborough HP27 9DE [email protected]

Competing interests: EW has been an employee of JanssenCilag and GlaxoWellcome. She is now self employed but still works mainly for pharmaceutical companies. She has done one project for the ABPI and also advised on its publication policy. She is a member of the working group that has produced Good Publication Practice for Pharmaceutical Companies and is involved in promoting these guidelines.

BMJ 326(7400):p 1196-1198, May 31, 2003.

Interactions between doctors and drug companies can lead to ethical dilemmas. This article gives an overview of the guidance and codes of practice that aim to regulate the relationship

Like the porcupine's quills, drug companies' interactions with doctors are numerous and can be harmful if approached the wrong way. (Lewis and colleagues used the analogy of dancing with porcupines to describe university-industry relations, and I liked it so much I have appropriated it.) I have aimed to highlight the major rules and guidelines relating to interactions between doctors and drug companies, but this is not an exhaustive survey.