The War we Don't Need

I've been reading a lot of Medblogs over the past few days. Physicians are having a hard time, what with insurance companies second-guessing their every move, a need to be "productive," patients who either know nothing or know too much, and a malpractice environment that is out of control.
It seems that physicians see the pharma companies as one more group lined up to to be out to get them. We're really not in favor with physicians. Our sales practices are disruptive and viewed as manipulative. Our research is automatically suspect, because we funded it. Our prices are too high for patients. We bring out too many "me-too products" and not enough innovative ones. We advertise directly to consumers, who then worry unnecessarily, or pressure their doc for medicines they might not really need.
But the truth is, we're in this together. We need physicians to recognize which patients would benefit from our products and prescribe them. We need physicians to conduct the "unbiased" research that we can't conduct, just because we're too close to our products. We need physicians to tell us where the unmet medical needs really lie.
And physicians need pharmaceutical companies and their products. Without drugs and vaccines, old and new, there is little a physician can do to help many patients, other than cutting, or watching and waiting.
Maybe we should get to know each other a little better.