I used to work for a very large group of doctors. You'd be amazed at the stuff they are given!
Yeah, my wife's a physician. One Saturday morning a few years ago our doorbell rings and it was FedEx delivering a free tree from a pharmaceutical company back east! Darn thing couldn't even have survived in this zone, lol. We didn't ask for it, didn't want it, and didn't appreciate it. The company darn sure didn't make any money on that blunder -- not from this household anyway!
I work with doctors and their policy is not to accept any gift that the pharmaceutical rep won't extend to the entire staff. The doctors discourage any gifts of value. Usually the reps bring in a buffet style lunch for the whole office and update everybody on what's new. Of course, they leave pens, post-it notes and a few samples on the table. However, no large or individual gifts are accepted.
My wife is a nurse and worked for several years for a group of doctors in our small town. She was told when she was hired that she wouldn't ever have to worry about lunch. Sure enough everyday a caterer would bring a huge spread of food that was paid for by a different drug company and it was for the doctors, their nurses and the receptionists. These catered meals must have cost several hundred dollars per day at least.
I wonder if my blood pressure medicine would cost less than 130 dollars per month if the drug company that makes them didn't participate in this scheme. It may seem piddly to some people but on a national scale they must spend billions of dollars every year which they add to the cost of the medicine that we HAVE to buy. I am against more laws by the government but this is one thing that should be stopped.