<br><span class="gmail_quote">From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Meghana Bahar</b> <a href="mailto:meghana@haiap.org">meghana@haiap.org</a><br><br></span>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">October 6, 2008</font></div>
<h1><font face="Arial" size="2">Study Says Drug Samples May Endanger Children     excerpts</font></h1>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">By <a title="More Articles by Gardiner Harris" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/gardiner_harris/index.html?inline=nyt-per" target="_blank"><font color="#000066">GARDINER HARRIS</font></a></font></div>

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<p><font face="Arial" size="2">A new study suggests that free drug samples, an effective marketing tool for the drug industry, do little to help the poor and may put children's health at risk.</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">The study, being published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, analyzed an in-depth survey conducted in 2004 by the <a title="More articles about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/centers_for_disease_control_and_prevention/index.html?inline=nyt-org" target="_blank"><font color="#000066">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</font></a> that asked people how they got health care. As part of the survey, respondents were asked if they received free drug samples. It was found that children in the lowest income group were no more likely to receive the samples than were those in the highest income group, in part because the poor are less likely to see doctors. </font></p>

<p><font face="Arial" size="2">Once in a doctor's office, children who lack <a title="Recent and archival health news about health insurance and managed care." onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/health_insurance_and_managed_care/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" target="_blank"><font color="#000066">health insurance</font></a> are more likely to receive free drug samples than their well-insured counterparts, the study reported. </font></p>

<p><font face="Arial" size="2">But of greater concern, the authors wrote, are the kinds of drug samples that physicians provide. In 2004, the year of the C.D.C. survey, more than 500,000 children received samples of four medicines that were later the subject of serious safety warnings required by the <a title="More articles about the U.S. Food And Drug Administration." onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/food_and_drug_administration/index.html?inline=nyt-org" target="_blank"><font color="#000066">Food and Drug Administration</font></a>.</font></p>

<p><font face="Arial" size="2">The drug's label often have a strong warning and a reminder that it was not approved for use in children under 2.</font></p>
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