Pharmaceutical marketing

Pharmaceutical marketing is the business of selling pharmaceuticals or drugs.

History

The marketing of medication has a long history. The selling of miracle cures, many with little real potency, has always been common. Marketing of legitimate non-prescription medications, such as pain relievers or allergy medicine, has also long been practiced. Mass marketing of prescription medications was rare until recently, however. It was long believed that since doctors made the selection of drugs, mass marketing was a waste of resources, when specific ads targeting the medical profession would be cheaper and just as effective. This would involve ads in professional journals, and visits by sales staff to doctor’s offices and hospitals. An important part of these efforts was marketing to medical students.

Direct and indirect marketing to health care providers

Importance of physicians

Physicians are perhaps the most important players in pharmaceutical sales. They write the prescriptions that determine which drugs will be used by the patient. Influencing the physician is key to pharmaceutical sales. Historically, this was done with large pharmaceutical sales forces. A medium-sized pharmaceutical company might have a sales force of 1000 representaives. The largest companies have tens of thousands of representatives. Sales representatives called upon physicians regularly providing information and free drug samples to the physicians. This is still the approach today, however, economic pressures on the industry are causing pharmaceutical companies to rethink the traditional sales process to physicians.

Who influences the physicians?

Pharmaceutical companies are developing processes to influence the people who influence the physicians. There are several channels by which a physician may be influenced, including self-influence through research, peer influence, direct interaction with pharmaceutical companies, patients, and public or private insurance companies.

Individual research

Physicians discover pharmaceutical information from such sources as the Physician's Desk Reference and online sources such as Epocrates.

Peer influence

Key opinion leaders

Pharmaceutical companies generally engage key opinion leaders early in the drug development process to provide advocacy activity and key marketing feedback.[1]

Colleagues

Physicians acquire information through informal contacts with their colleagues, including social events, professional affiliations, common hospital affiliations, and common medical school affiliations.

Direct contact with pharmaceutical companies

Sales representatives

A given pharmaceutical representative will often try to see a physician every few weeks.

Special events such as dinner speaker programs

Pharmaceutical companies sponsor educational events.

Patients

Since the 1980s new methods of marketing for prescription drugs to consumers have become important. Patients are far less deferential to doctors and will inquire about, or even demand, to receive a medication they have seen advertised on television. In the United States recent years have seen an increase in mass media advertisements for pharmaceuticals.

Private and public insurers

Public and private insurers affect the writing of prescriptions by physicians through formularies that restrict the number and types of drugs that the insurer will cover. Not only can the insurer affect drug sales by including or excluding a particular drug from a formulary, they can affect sales by tiering, or placing bureacratic hurdles to prescribing certain drugs. In January 2006, the U.S. will institute a new public prescription drug plan through its Medicare program. Known as Medicare Part D, this program engages private insurers to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for the placement of drugs on tiered formularies.

Data for marketing to physicians

The largest providers of data for marketing to physicians are:

Controversies

The mass marketing to consumers of pharmaceuticals is controversial. Some feel it is better to leave the decision wholly in the hands of medical professionals. Due to these concerns, some areas impose limits on pharmaceutical mass marketing that are not placed on the marketing of other products. In some areas it is required that ads for drugs end with a list of possible side effects, so that consumers are informed of both facets of a medicine. Canada has especially harsh limitations on pharmaceutical advertising. Commercials that mention the name of a product cannot in any way describe what it does. Commercials that mention a medical problem cannot also mention the name of the product for sale, at most it can direct the viewer to a website or telephone number operated by the pharmaceutical company.
The number and persistence of pharmaceutical representatives has placed a burden on the time of physicians [2]. "As the number of reps went up, the amount of time an average rep spent with doctors went down—so far down, that tactical scaling has spawned a strategic crisis. Physicians no longer spend much time with sales reps, nor do they see this as a serious problem."

External links

Pharmaceutical Executive Magazine