Free drug samples fail as a safety net for poor patients, study says.

Trial, March, 2008 by Burtka, Allison Torres

One purpose of free drug samples, doctors and drug companies say, is to provide needed medications to low-income and uninsured patients who have trouble affording them. But a recent study found that few samples end up in the hands of these patients.

"Our findings suggest that free drug samples serve as a marketing tool, not a safety net," the researchers wrote. (Sarah L. Cutrona et al., Characteristics of Recipients of Free Prescription Drug Samples: A Nationally Representative Analysis, 98 Am. J. Pub. Health 284 (2008).)

The study, conducted by Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School researchers, is the first to look at free drug samples nationally. It found that 12 percent of Americans received a free drug sample in 2003; less than...

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