E-drug: Appropriate Marketing of Pharmaceutics (cont'd)
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In response to Deran,
Companies regulate the behaviour of reps by setting sales targets and
providing incentives. My informal discussions with reps and more
senior industry people suggest that the companies have little control
over how the reps achieve their sales. If the reps judge that the
promotional material which is provided by the company is unlikely to
increase sales they will not use it and there is little the company can
do to make them "obey". This is because almost the only measurement
that the companies have on their reps is the area sales.
Anthropologists Kamat and Nichter have recently published a
magnificent little study of reps in Bombay as a chapter in Bennett S,
Mc Pake B "Private health providers in developing countries: serving
the public interest? London Zed Press 1997. My favourite quote from a
rep is about his use of the 3Cs for persuasion: Convince, if that fails
Confuse, if that fails Corrupt!
Reps will attend courses about ethical codes etc but not pay attention
because such training is not seen as useful towards gaining incentives.
If there have been "substantial advances" in Australia (my country) I
am not aware of them. Please inform me.
Regards,
Peter
Dr Peter Mansfield
Director, MaLAM
MaLAM Headquarters
PO Box 172, Daw Pk SA 5041, Australia
phone/fax +61 8 8374 2245
peter.mansfield@flinders.edu.au
http://www.camtech.com.au/~malam
MaLAM encourages pharmaceutical companies to provide more reliable
information to assist appropriate health care.
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