Word: burack
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...manufacture and sale of Nembutol for 17 years. During that time it could charge whatever the traffic would bear since there was no competition. Abbott also sent out detail men--salesmen that all drug companies hire to promote their brands. "They wait around the teaching hospitals especially," Burack says, but detail men visit doctors too. The average physician receives one a week, touting the latest cures and "keeping them up to date," Burack says...
Another way to keep doctors up to date is the Physicians' Desk Reference (PDR), which looks very official. But, as Burack points out, PDR is an advertising vehicle--a fact most physicians don't know. The 1966 rate was $115 per column inch, so the gross value of the space that year was over $1,725,000. Nembutol is listed there, like the other brand names, and Abbott paid well for the privilege. In his book, Burack calls PDR "probably the shrewdest and most effective means by which the pharmaceutical corporations perpetuate their hold over doctors and patients...
Because of the demand, Abbott charges $16.20 per 1000 capsules wholesale for Nembutol. In his book, Burack lists 15 other reliable companies that make the generic equiva- lent--all but one of them for less than half the price, seven of them for less than one-third the price and one for just...
...What Burack is saying is nothing new. That is how the doctors and pharmacists just shrug off his book. But Random House is certain that the Handbook will be a bestseller. For the first time millions of people will have the information at hand, and even if Senate and state investigations accomplish nothing, there will be public pressure. and that is what Burack wants. In Chicago, Washington, and New York bookstores are already running out of copies. And the Coop says they are selling "exceptionally well." Things are moving fast, "and the real promotion has not begun yet," Burack says...
...Burack is a promo man's dream. He is tan and handsome with a rich radio voice that reeks controlled confidence, like your family doctor's when he tells you, "It's just a virus that's going around." But Burack is not like your family doctor at all. He is a rebel, and even though he would publicly disown the label, it is pretty clear that Burack enjoys taking on an inequity that has been tolerated for decades...