According to an article in  the New York Times entitled "Drug Industry to Announce Revised Code on Marketing" by Gardiner Harris, pharmaceutical companies will announce a "voluntary guideline" Thursday that will ban the giving of "gifts" that result from pharmaceutical marketing campaigns.

All of this on the heels of an article on June 3 about the "role played by pharmaceutical and device makers in the education of doctors."  Gifts to physicians has become "an increasingly controversial topic, with some top medical schools placing a growing number of restrictions on the longtime practice of providing free food, gifts and educational seminars to trainees."

The article states that "neither the earlier rules nor those expected to be announced Thursday apply to biotechnology or medical device makers, many of which continue to give expensive gifts and resort vacations to high-profile physicians."

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