You know them when you see them: Smartly dressed, perfectly coiffed young people who trot into doctors’ offices across the nation every day and get heralded like royalty into the inner sanctum of the physician’s quarters while you sit flipping through month-old Time magazines in the waiting room, aging by the minute.
But let’s pity those drug manufacturer reps for a moment. Their jobs are about to get a lot more difficult. Their swag is now banished, their dining severely curtailed. Nevermind golf, entertainment and vacation packages — those were discouraged a long time ago. As of Jan. 1, the pens and the bagels are out. So are notepads, mugs and most non-educational lunches or dinners.
All this is spelled out in the new “Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals” that goes into effect Jan. 1 for members of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America — a trade group representing pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies.
Some doctors, understandably, take umbrage at the new rules. My favorite quote about this comes from Nickie Braxton, corporate compliance officer at Hartford Hospital/Hartford Health Care Corporation in Connecticut, to AIS Health:
“Physicians accustomed to bagels and Danishes, meals, golf resorts,…entertainment at industry-sponsored events, etc., will probably be less than enthusiastic about these changes, although most have surely been hearing about these compliance concerns for some time.”
Many physicians “are offended by the notion that they may be influenced by these minor offerings, and they’re indignant at the notion that they would prescribe a drug simply because someone brought them a bagel. But these [drug] companies are made [up] of very bright, creative, industrious individuals. Why would they spend millions of dollars on bagels and Danishes each year if this strategy had no impact?”
5 Comments
Great… now they’ll have even more to spend on direct-to-consumer marketing. Heaven help us all! The biggest losers will be the doctors’ office staff who will now have to buy their own bagels.
Having been “wined and dined” by professional sales reps in the past I can see two sides to this issue. In order for me to take time from my schedule to sit through a presentation about the latest innovation in “whatever” it makes a certain amount of sense to do it over lunch or something similar. I’m not saying the drinks buy the sale but perhaps they “buy the time” for the presentation.
At the annual Kansas Environmental Conference the food and drinks are routinely provided by vendors. These vendors take advantage of the situation and have a captive audience for their wares.
It’s a fine line but can be respected IF the vendors realize it.
This is a start, I suppose. Now if only Congress would crack down on all the Freebies to Big Pharma.
The wheels of big democracy grind slowly but eventually get there … if the wheels do roll too far at times. Lets face it, it wasn’t the “danishes and bagels,” it was the free trips to the Caribbean, Hawaii and/or Aspen with a “medical class” thrown in. That might still go on, who knows.
The politicians should have a similar code.