“Many readers have wondered why I decided to publish The Carlat Report. Well, back in the day, I was a member of the speaker’s bureau of four pharmaceutical companies. I would typically travel to the offices of primary care physicians nearby and talk up the sponsor’s drug. At $750 a pop, this was not a bad way to spend my lunch break! I would also give occasional dinner programs for around $1500, steak and Merlot included. As my bank account grew, however, so did my morning-after pangs of conscience. One day, a regional manager visited me in my office and said, “Dr. Carlat, one of my drug reps called me and said that you didn’t seem as enthusiastic about our product as usual at the last lunch. I told him that even Dr. Carlat can’t hit a home run for us every time. Have you been sick?” At that moment, I realized that I had become no more than a glorified drug rep. I resigned from all speaker’s bureaus, and started publishing The Carlat Report in six months.”