Abstract

This book covers a broad range of issues regarding the pharmaceutical industry, patients, pharmacists, prescribers, other health professionals, the Congress, and the US government, among others. It is the culmination of a lifetime of work by Mickey C. Smith, PhD, whose career spanned more than 50 years and included approximately 20 books, many of them devoted to the role of drugs in the healthcare system, regulation of pharmaceuticals, and not least of all the marketing of pharmaceuticals. Dr Smith, who (full disclosure) was my mentor in my PhD program many years ago, devoted much of his life to the marketing of pharmaceuticals. He not only had an illustrious career in academe but also spent a number of years in the pharmaceutical industry involved in prescription drug marketing.