Most pharmaceutical sales reps believe PhRMA’s Code onInteractions with Healthcare Professionals is negatively impacting their jobs,according to a recent study by market research firm G&S.
An overwhelming 93% of respondents said the guidelines arefurther limiting access and time with physicians and/or staff and makingprogram recruitment more difficult.
The findings are part of G&S’s Rep Review 2005, anindependent study designed to capture real-world information about thehealthcare marketplace from sales reps.
“What a sales rep will say to his or her employer and whathe or she will confide to an outside, independent source are very different,”said Melissa Spaulding, G&S Research VP, client management, in a statement.
Other key findings included:
- Of the 72% of respondent reps who reported that they do not get enough time with physicians, more than two-thirds of reps cited “too many competitor representatives taking up physicians’ time” as the most significant reason.
- Reps want more training in disease states and less on pharmaceutical marketplace issues.
- Significantly more reps reported in 2005 (90%) that physicians discuss and/or use point-of-care reference tools than they did in 2003 (52%).
- An increasing number of reps (up 17% from 2003) believe that DTC advertising is influencing their jobs, and most indicated that the effect is positive.
- When reps were asked what company they have the greatest respect for, GlaxoSmithKline was named most, followed by Johnson & Johnson, which came in a close second. Genentech, the third-most-respected firm, improved most over the past two years.
- Sales reps believe that public opinion of drug manufacturers declined in the past year, and most identified media exposure as the culprit.
From the June 01, 2006 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
