Symposium on Antibacterial Therapy.

Abstract

A risk entailed in the support of medical journals by advertising and of the meetings of medical societies by the pharmaceutical industry is that the original objective may become secondary to the purposes of highpressure advertising. An an example of this danger several symposia held under the auspices of the New York Academy of Science have been thinly veiled promotional parties in which the influence of Madison Avenue is pitted against dispassionate scientific evaluation of new products. Well-known investigators whose research has been supported by the company producing a drug are brought as guests or consultants of the company. There is nothing inherently wrong in this. The danger of such arrangements is clearly seen in this symposium on antibacterial therapy. The papers in this symposium are of very unequal merit. Some seem objective. Others make one wonder about such a casual approach. But the major offense is contained in the