Straight talk with...Ray Moynihan

The relationship between pharmaceutical companies and medical professionals has become too close for comfort, say many experts. They fear that the situation can breed conflicts of interest that lead to the creation of new, poorly defined concepts of illnesses—so called 'disease mongering'. The problem is a growing one, according to Ray Moynihan, honorary lecturer on topics such as 'medicine and the media' at the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newcastle in Callaghan, Australia and co-author of the book Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All into Patients. Genevive Bjorn talked with Moynihan, who helped organize the first world conference on disease mongering, about how this phenomenon affects health priorities.