Direct to Doc marketing
Big pharma woos docs with free food, trips, and samples. Now that's a "dog bites man" story. The reason for the ongoing marketing to docs is obvious - more contact, more drugs sold.
But the world is starting to look much more closely at the pharma-physician relationship, and that examination is likely to bring changes.
A couple years ago big pharma spent over $5 billion on DTD marketing. Over $20 billion if you count the value of the free samples. These are not dumb companies - they would not be spending that kind of money if it wasn't effective.
Although one study indicated that detailer visits and free samples had a negligible effect on prescribing patterns, the study did not consider the impact of travel, payment for consulting services and research assistance, and other pharma activities that are loosely defined as "marketing".
One pharma manufacturer, Cephalon, is quite clear about the benefits of marketing to physicians. Their fourth quarter 2006 report indicated the company was working very hard to get docs to prescribe its pain meds for a variety of patients, and was counting on the succcess of these efforts to dramatically increase sales.
New York is now considering legislation that would require pharma companies to report all gifts over $75 to the state.
If you're looking to find out the latest on pharma marketing, Roy Poses at Health Care Renewal comes across with the goods. For starters, there's the All-Pharma Cheerleading Squad, which is comprised of drug reps who are also NFL/NBA cheerleaders.
Oh, and the winner of the Miss FHM 2006 is (wait for it...) a drug rep who has yet to complete her degree in marketing.
Comments
If a doctor is not perscribing in the best interest of his patient, then it is a problem with that specific doctor, not the system. Most doctors use their samples for patients to try the medication before filling the script, or for patients that can't afford the script. Vendors by customers dinners in all areas of business. Legislating control over this just for doctors is absurd. This is just another unimportant discussion that distracts from the real problems with heatlhcare.
Posted by: John | April 28, 2007 12:54 PM
Following the theme of yourpost,last year New Hampshire passed a law barring use of physician prescribing information for commercial purposes. The law was specifically aimed at preventing drug reps from using a physician's own prescribing patterns to target sales pitches. Yesterday, the law was stricken by a federal court on 1st amendment grounds. A link to an article is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/01/us/01prescription.html?_r=2&oref=slogi
Posted by: RFisk | May 1, 2007 11:04 AM