Prometheus 6

"That finding suggests that the samples were a marketing tool and not a safety net because the poor and uninsured patients were not finding their way to where the samples were," Cutrona said....

..."Clearly, free samples often lead to improved quality of life for millions of Americans, regardless of their income" [Ken Johnson, senior vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said in a statement]

Johnson called free samples a safety net for many uninsured and low-income patients in a letter to the editor that was published in 2006 in The New York Times.

Drug sample distribution system faulted
Study finds most of free products go to the insured
By Elizabeth Cooney, Globe Correspondent  |  January 3, 2008

Free drug samples are more likely to go to wealthy and insured people than to poor or uninsured Americans, according to a study by Boston-area doctors that conflicts with the view that giving away prescription medications forms a safety net for low-income patients.

Fewer than one-third of all people who received samples in a 32,000-person, nationally representative survey had low incomes, and fewer than one-fifth who got the free drugs were uninsured at any point in 2003, the year analyzed by researchers at Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School. Low income was defined as less than 200 percent of the federal poverty line.