Drug Ads Raise Questions for Heart Pioneer

[deminks]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/business/media/07jarvik.html?_r=1&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

Dr. Robert Jarvik is best known for the artificial heart he pioneered more than a quarter-century ago. Since then he had toiled in relative obscurity — until he began appearing in television ads two years ago for the Pfizer cholesterol drug Lipitor.

The ads have depicted him, among other outdoorsy pursuits, rowing a one-man racing shell swiftly across a mountain lake. “When diet and exercise aren’t enough, adding Lipitor significantly lowers cholesterol,” Dr. Jarvik says in the ad.

(snip)

Some of the questions may involve his credentials. Even though Dr. Jarvik holds a medical degree, for example, he is not a cardiologist and is not licensed to practice medicine. So what, critics ask, qualifies him to recommend Lipitor on television — even if, as he says in some of the ads, he takes the drug himself?

And, for that matter, what qualifies him to pose as a rowing enthusiast? As it turns out, Dr. Jarvik, 61, does not actually practice the sport. The ad agency hired a stunt double for the sculling scenes.

(end snip)

What a tangled web we weave...

[sharp_stick]

1. Jarvik is a media whore

plain and simple. During the time when Barney Clark was "recuperating" from the operation to give him the artificial heart Jarvik would appear with the surgical and medical teams for news conferences wearing scrubs. Jarvik had absolutely nothing to do with the surgery or medical care of Clark at any time.

The guy does love the TV cameras, even though they don't like him too much.

[knitter4democracy]

2. Hubby hates those ads.

He says Jarvik must need the money for some reason.