Posted on: Sunday, August 17, 2003
Biggest marketing cost is selling doctors
| • | Drug ads changing health landscape |
| • | Drug firms defend rush to advertise and profit |
By Lisa Zagaroli
Detroit News
WASHINGTON — On any given day, Dr. Dawn Springer probably could see 20 pharmaceutical representatives in her family practice in Mason, Mich., if she had not developed a system for hearing them out.
The sales people have to sign in, and they're not allowed to visit more than once a month per drug. When she signs for the coveted free samples to give her more needy patients, Springer usually indulges a three-sentence spiel.
"If they want more of my time, once a week I allow them to set up what we call a 'drug lunch': Fifteen minutes of my time, and they'll bring in food for my staff — which is a treat for my staff and for me — and I'll listen to them," Springer said. "Most of them you can't interrupt, because you get them off track and they don't know what to say next."
Although most of the public attention related to drug advertising is on so-called direct-to-consumer advertising on television, radio and in print, the drug industry also spends billions on free samples, free lunches and other costs incurred by sales representatives who hawk the drugs directly to doctors.
In 2001, 55 percent of the industry's promotional spending went to free samples given to office-based physicians, for a total of $10.5 billion, up from 4.9 billion in 1996. Twenty-nine percent was for sales staff activities, at $5.5 billion, up from $3 billion in 1996, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Both budgets exceed the spending on advertising directed at consumers — $2.7 billion in 2001, up from $800 million in 1996.
The practice is welcomed and loathed by physicians, sometimes simultaneously, as they are pressured by both patients and sales representatives.
Critics are concerned that the influence of the pharmaceutical industry could lead doctors to prescribe more expensive drugs when cheaper ones are available. They also worry that doctors, often pressed for time, won't do independent research on the products.
But studies show doctors often don't succumb to their patients' requests.
"People come in our office who say, 'I want the purple pill, I want this antihistamine,"' Springer said. "We have to try to talk them out of it."
