Can coffee cups cause corruption?

By Patricia Hunt
Published: October 24, 2008

An era is coming to an end. In January, pharmaceutical companies will no longer give trinkets to doctors. No more cheap letter openers, paperclip holders, notepads, and pens. It is over.

I grew up with this junk scattered about. My father was a doctor. I can’t imagine that he ever prescribed a drug because he received these free “gifts.” A lot of his patients worked in the furniture factories and hosiery mills. He was acutely aware of the cost of drugs and had a policy of ordering the least expensive drug that had a reasonable chance of doing the job. He also had a stack of medical journals on the nightstand by his bed, and he read them. He was suspicious of the information dispensed by “detail men” — the sales staff of drug companies. He would never talk to any of them except Gib Callahan, and I think it was golf they talked about. They were free to leave samples or trinkets if they liked, and they did like. I still have a plastic cube with family photos in it and the name of a drug in small letters spread across one side.

There is a drug company gift that has become a part of my parents’ lives for at least three decades. I have no idea why. Every morning they pour themselves cups of instant coffee into white mugs that say in big, black letters on one side, “STRIKE BACK AT HERPES ZOSTER,” and on the other side, “ZOVIRAX (acyclovir) capsules For Treatment of Herpes Zoster.”  To make this mug even more attractive there was a strip that had what looked like an irritated nerve ending running through it. When the cup got hot, “800 mg.” appeared on the strip. I don’t know what color the strip was originally, but now it is an ugly grayish brown. Heat no longer activates the 800 mg, but if you look closely, you can see the dim remains of the numbers. I am thinking of contacting the Smithsonian to see if I can interest them in what surely must be the last two herpes zoster cups in existence.

Why on earth would people with lovely mugs from England with foxes being chased by hounds followed by men on horseback spiraling around the cup choose instead cups reminding them of herpes? It can’t possibly be the way they look. Do these cups hold heat better? Do they fit your hand more comfortably? Are they saving the “good cups?” For what? My parents are older than 90. I have asked them why they keep having morning coffee in herpes cups, but I have never gotten an answer. I don’t think they know the answer anymore than I do. 

When I visit them, I use the only other free mug. It has a lovely picture of Adirondack chairs beneath a maple tree in full, fall colors and says, “Live life joyfully, happily.” The other side reads, “McAllister and Hanks, PLLC,” a local law firm. The “good” tea cups and coffee mugs remain safely on the shelf.

I never understood why drug companies thought that doctors would choose their drugs because of a free mug or pen. I understand corruption. I understand why doctors would succumb to the temptation of writing a journal article favoring a drug in exchange for a free vacation. I don’t approve of it; I don’t think anyone with integrity would do it, but I understand it. But who would sell out for a coffee mug? If you can get through medical school, can’t you remember, or at least look up, all the drug treatment options for your patients? Would you really think to yourself, “Gosh, who can remember all those herpes drugs? Not me! I’ll just prescribe that drug on the coffee mug.” But then what do I know? The longer I live, the less I think I understand how the world works. Still, I think we will all sleep better knowing that physicians can no longer be corrupted by coffee mugs. 

NOTE:  There are many herpes viruses.  Herpes Zoster is commonly known as shingles.

Patricia Hunt, of Staunton, is a chaplain at Mary Baldwin College.