Free Drugs, Free Clinics: Samples and the Free Clinic Movement, 1967-1976

The free clinic movement that began in the 1960s involved a heterogenous assortment of liberal and leftist community groups, health professions students, and professionals. Under the banner "health care is a right, not a privilege," activists sought to extend access to health care services to those traditionally excluded from the system. Yet with no reliable source of revenues, clinics ran on shoestring budgets, and relied heavily on donations to keep their operations going. This was particularly true with respect to medications: free clinics presupposed free pharmacies.

This thesis investigated how the promotional drug sample became a central element to this social movement, and how samples became a point of intersection between drug marketers and free clinic workers. In the process, it highlights the dual role of the drug sample in the modern history of American medicine--always a marketing tool, and yet, in the absence of a universal health care system, also a reservoir of free drugs for the medically indigent.