Thanksgiving weekend is a big moviegoing opportunity, with at least one film that aims to please families, from Grandpa down to toddlers.
Unless you are 17 or older and also feel comfortable viewing many instances of onscreen nudity while sharing Milk Duds with blood relatives, “Love & Other Drugs” is not that movie.
The film is of interest to the Health Blog, though, because the male lead, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, is a Pfizer sales rep, responsible for persuading doctors to switch to Zoloft from Prozac and eventually, to sell them on the then-revolutionary Viagra. (The movie’s action begins in 1996.)
Gyllenhaal’s character also meets a patient (played by Anne Hathaway) on the job and ends up romancing her — quite explicitly, according to the reviews we read this morning, which were mixed. (Here are links to reviews from New York Magazine, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and RottenTomatoes.com’s amalgamation of reviews.)
The way he first encounters Hathaway’s character, by pretending to be an intern so he can see her with her shirt off, as well as other instances of untoward sales practices and conduct, isn’t pleasing Pfizer so much. As the WSJ reported last month, a spokesman for the drug giant said that based on the trailer alone, “we do not condone the sales practices portrayed.” He continued: “They do not conform to our policies and procedures, which hold our employees to high ethical standards.”
Yesterday, Pfizer released a statement reminding viewers the company was not involved in the film’s production. And — spoiler alert! — the company said it was “glad to see appropriate attention paid to the complex challenges facing Parkinson’s disease patients and their families,” noting that Pfizer scientists are among those seeking a cure and improved therapies for that and other neurodegenerative diseases.
The movie’s director, Ed Zwick, told the WSJ that he consulted with physicians and pharma reps to “get the details right,” including instances of reps discussing how to promote off-label use of drugs. Pfizer, of course, paid $2.3 billion last year to settle allegations of improper marketing of its painkiller Bextra, which is no longer on the market, and other open investigations.
If this pharma-industry-as-movie-backdrop thing works out, we can suggest Zwick’s next project: a biopic based on the sales rep who blew the whistle on both AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly, getting a chunk of the companies’ multi-million dollar settlements with the government.
(We should note that both the WSJ and 20th Century Fox, which is releasing the film, are owned by News Corp.)
Update: This post has been updated with a statement from Pfizer.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
